Environmental and anthropometric factors associated with infantile arterial hypertension

A obesidade infantil, considerada uma pandemia, apresenta custos sócio-econômicos significativos por sua elevada morbimortalidade. Para avaliar a associação entre fatores biológicos e ambientais e a presença de hipertensão arterial (HA), realizou-se estudo transversal com 701 crianças, de 5 a 9 anos, de Feira de Santana, BA. A pressão arterial foi mensurada conforme parâmetros do Update on the 1987 Task Force Report on High Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents. Definiu-se sobrepeso e obesidade como índice de massa corpórea > aos percentis 85 e 95 para idade e sexo, respectivamente. A análise de entrevistas com os responsáveis possibilitou estudo das variáveis sexo, etnia, idade, história familiar para HA e escola freqüentada. Observados como fatores preditivos independentes para HA a presença de sobrepeso (OR= 4,49; ro= 0,04), obesidade (OR= 13,05; ro= 0,000) e o fato de estudar em escola privada (OR= 1,93; ro= 0,13), sugerindo um papel importante de fatores biológicos e ambientais na gênese da HA em crianças.Childhood obesity is considered pandemic with significant social and economical costs because of its high morbidity and mortality. To evaluate the association between biological and environmental factors and infantile arterial hypertension (AH), a cross-sectional study was performed with 701 children, ranging from 5 to 9 years old, from Feira de Santana, BA. The arterial pressure was measured following the criteria of the Update on the 1987 Task Force Report on High Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents. Overweight and obesity were defined as body-mass index equal or above the 85th and the 95th percentiles for age and gender, respectively. Interviews with the children's responsible were used to determine the role of gender, ethnic group, age, familiar history of AH, and type of school. Overweight (OR= 4.49; rho= 0.04), obesity (OR= 13.05; rho= 0.000) and studying at private school (OR= 1.93; r= 0.13) were observed as predictive and independent factors associated with hypertension. Therefore, biological and environmental factors seem to be involved on the genesis of AH in children