Prevalence of overweight, obesity and hypertension amongst school children and adolescents in North Karnataka: A cross sectional study

Introduction: Childhood obesity& hypertension are global health problems as they caused increase in morbidity & mortality. Objective: To find out the prevalence of obesity, overweight in school going children and adolescents of north Karnataka. Also to study obesity related morbidities like Prehypertension and Hypertension and associated risk factors for sustained hypertension. Materials and Methods: Total 2800 children in age group from 10-16 years from 3 schools of Urban and rural region of Bijapur district were screened. Weight, height, BMI and Blood pressure were recorded. These values were compared with WHO child growth standards. Children then classified as overweight (OW) and obesity (OB). Blood pressure values were compared with reference charts given by American heart association guidelinesand grouped as prehypertensive (PHTN) and Hypertension (HTN). Results: This study revealed that 3.6% rural school children were overweight (OW) in age group of 13 years, 1.4% children were obese (OB) in age group of 15 years. In urban school children, 3.3% OB in age group of 12 years and 11.1% OW in age group of 10 years. In Rural school children, prevalence of systolic HTN was 21% in OW children and 25% in OB children. Among urban schoolchildren prevalence of systolic PHTN was 5.1% among OW and in OB group it was 16.6%. Conclusions: This study revealed that prevalence of hypertension was significantly higher in overweight and obese compared to children with Normal BMI. Also the prevalence of overweight and obesity is more in urban school children than rural children population. We need further large scale studies to study obesity and associated morbidities like hypertension school children and adolescents. Key words: Body mass index