Prevalence of hypertension and obesity in children aged 6-18 years in a city of Central India: a cross-sectional study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20262963Keywords:
Hypertension, Obesity, ChildrenAbstract
Background: Historically, hypertension in children was deemed uncommon and primarily attributable to underlying medical illnesses, such as renal or endocrine abnormalities. However, this phenomenon is evolving, as a growing proportion of youngsters are now being diagnosed with primary (essential) hypertension, a disorder formerly believed to impact mainly adults. Objective was to study prevalence of hypertension and obesity in children aged 6-18 years.
Methods: School-based cross-sectional study was carried out among 1000 school children of age 6-18 years. Height, weight and body mass index were measured and classified as per standard guidelines. Blood pressure was measured and classified as per standard guidelines.
Results: Prevalence of obesity and overweight was 10.6% and 14.6% respectively and combined was 24.8%. Prevalence of obesity decreased as age increased from 6-7 years (12.7%) to 11-12 years (7.5%) and increased to 14.5% at 16-18 years. Prevalence of hypertension was 4.1%. It was 2.5% in 11-12 years and increased to 8.5% in 16-18 years. Prevalence of overweight and obesity was statistically not different in males and females (p=0.6347) and as per school type (p=0.1699). Prevalence of prehypertension and stage-1 hypertension was not much different in the males and females (p=4162).
Conclusions: Prevalence of overweight, obesity, pre-hypertension and stage-1 hypertension was quite high in this study population. The factors like gender and school types were not associated with overweight, obesity, pre-hypertension and stage-1 hypertension.
References
Prenissl J, Manne-Goehler J, Jaacks LM, Prabhakaran D, Awasthi A, Bischops AC, et al. Hypertension screening, awareness, treatment, and control in India: A nationally representative cross-sectional study among individuals aged 15 to 49 years. PLoS Med. 2019;16(5):e1002801.
International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) and ICF. National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), 2015-16: India Fact Sheet. Mumbai: IIPS; 2017. Available at: https://www.aidsdatahub.org/sites/ default/files/resource/national-family-health-survey-4-2015-2016-india-fact-sheet.pdf. Accessed on 26 May 2026.
International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) and ICF. National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 2019-21: India Fact Sheet. Mumbai: IIPS; 2021. Available at: https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/ OF43/India_National_Fact_Sheet.pdf. Accessed on 26 May 2026.
World Health Organization. Obesity and overweight. 2025. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight. Accessed on 26 May 2026.
Shawon MSR, Hossain FB, Thomson B, Adhikary G, Chowdhury A, Chowdhury R, et al. Trends in the prevalence of overweight among Bangladeshi children aged 24-59 months (2004-2014) by sex and socioeconomic status. Int J Obes (Lond). 2020;44(3):664-74.
Corvalán C, Garmendia ML, Jones-Smith J, Lutter CK, Miranda JJ, Pedraza LS, et al. Nutrition status of children in Latin America. Obes Rev. 2017;18(2):7-18.
Neupane S, Prakash KC, Doku DT. Overweight and obesity among women: analysis of demographic and health survey data from 32 Sub-Saharan African Countries. BMC Public Health. 2016;16:30.
Vasudevan A, Thomas T, Kurpad A, Sachdev HS. Prevalence of and Factors Associated With High Blood Pressure Among Adolescents in India. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(10):e2239282.
Daniel RA, Haldar P, Kant S, Krishnan A, Kumar R, Gupta SK. Prevalence and Factors Associated with Hypertension among Community-Dwelling Adolescents in a Rural Area of Haryana, India, Using AAP 2017 and NHBPEP Criteria. Indian J Pediatr. 2022;89(11):1099-106.
Al Kibria GM, Swasey K, Sharmeen A, Day B. Estimated Change in Prevalence and Trends of Childhood Blood Pressure Levels in the United States After Application of the 2017 AAP Guideline. Prev Chronic Dis. 2019;16:E12.
Rajinikanth BS, Sujatha U, Yadav S. Prevalence of Obesity and Its Relationship With Hypertension Among School-Going Adolescents Aged 12-16 Years. Cureus. 2023;15(8):e42999.
Kaplan NM, Victor RG, Flynn T. Kaplan's clinical hypertension. 11th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2015.
Kaur S, Sachdev HP, Dwivedi SN, Lakshmy R, Kapil U. Prevalence of hypertension and associated risk factors among school children in Delhi. Indian Pediatr. 2006;43(9):798-805.
Bagudai S, Nanda P, Kodidala SR. Prevalence of obesity and hypertension in adolescent school going children in Berhampur, Odisha, India. Int J Physiotherapy Res. 2014;2(6):777-80.
Ranjani H, Mehreen TS, Pradeepa R, Anjana RM, Garg R, Anand K, et al. Epidemiology of childhood overweight and obesity in India: a systematic review. Indian J Med Res. 2016;143(2):160-74.
Gupta N, Goel K, Shah P, Misra A. Childhood obesity in developing countries. Endocr Rev. 2012;33(1):48-70.
Kim HS, Park MJ. Prevalence of hypertension in Korean children and adolescents. Korean J Pediatr. 2018;61(6):177-83.
Government of India. Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) 2016–2018: National Report. New Delhi: MoHFW; 2019.
World Health Organization. Obesity and overweight: Fact sheet. 2021. Available at: https://www.who. int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overwe ight. Accessed on 26 May 2026.
Sahana D, Ramesh K, Manjunath R. Prevalence of hypertension and its association with obesity among school children. Int J Contemp Pediatr. 2018;5(6):2240-5.
Appel LJ, Frohlich ED, Hall JE, Pearson TA, Sacco RL, Seals DR, et al. Importance of population-wide sodium reduction. Circulation. 2011;123(10):1138-43.
Satapathy MM, Kar PK, Bhuyan M, Mishra DK, Lenka SR, Chandra Pradhan P. Prevalence of obesity and hypertension among adolescents in an urban slum of Cuttack City. Eur J Cardiovasc Med. 2024;14:704-10.
Gundeti V, Aroor S, Lewis LE, Mundkur SC, Bhat R, Kini P. Alarming rise in prevalence of obesity among children with essential hypertension. Clin Epidemiol Glob Health. 2025;32:101948.
James BC, Thomas RJ, Mathew LG, Joseph N. Prevalence of elevated blood pressure and its association with obesity among rural school children aged 6–13 years in India. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2023;10(4):1452-8.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
