Obesity in children and adolescents and its relationship with hypertension

Authors: DR VIJAYANATH ITAGI, RAMESH PATIL

Abstract: It is difficult to project the prevalence of obesity and overweight among children in India since there is no nationally representative data from India. We determined the time trends in childhood obesity in a representative sample of schoolchildren from Raichur District, Karnataka and investigated the relationship of obesity with blood pressure. Materials and methods: We used a stratified random cluster sampling method to select the children. Anthropometric data were collected from 23,842 students, 5-16 years of age, during 2005-06. Blood pressure and anthropometric data were collected from 19,263 students during 2007-08. Overweight and obesity were defined by body mass index for gender and age. Gender, age, and height were considered for determining hypertension. Results: The rate of overweight children increased from 4.94% of the total students in 2005 to 6.57% in 2007 (OR: 1.36; 95% CI: 1.25-1.47; P < 0.0001). The increase was significant in both boys and girls. The rate of overweight children was significantly higher in urban regions and in private schools, and the rising trend was limited to private schools. Systolic or diastolic incident hypertension was found in 17.34% of overweight children versus 10.1% of the remaining students (OR: 1.87; 95% CI: 1.60-2.17; P < 0.0001). Conclusion: The present study shows that, childhood obesity showed a rising trend in a period of 2 years. The results put forward the need for greater public awareness and prevention programmes on childhood obesity and hypertension. Hypertension was common in overweight children. Overweight is a rising health problem in children and adolescents in Raichur city.

Keywords: Child, adolescents, hypertension, obesity

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