Background: Primary hypertension is detectable in children and adolescents as in adults. It is associated with a positive family history of hypertension, obesity, and life-style factors. Hypertension has been increasing among children and adolescents since1990s.
Objective: The objective of the study is to determine the prevalence of childhood and adolescent hypertension and its risk factors.
Materials and methods: This is an observational study carried out among children and adolescents at a selected private clinic in Chennai, India. Convenient sampling technique was used to select the participants. The questionnaire consists of demographic profile, questionnaire related to risk factors and blood pressure readings.
Results: The results of this study show that the mean systolic BP for boys and girls are normal between all the age groups. The mean diastolic pressure for both boys and girls are also found to be normal. Though the mean blood pressure readings of boys and girls for both systolic and diastolic are found to be normal among the ages between 5-19 years, there are still few risk factors found to be present in the history.
Conclusion: There are more than half of them 25 (55.6%) who had family history of hypertension (both maternal and paternal). Children with family history of hypertension should therefore, be targeted for primary prevention in vigorous manner along with dietary and lifestyle modification.
Impact Factor
2017: 6.614
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