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Is high waist circumference and body weight associated with high blood pressure in Iranian primary school children?

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Abstract

Introduction and objectives

The prevalence of overweight, abdominal obesity and hypertension among children has increased worldwide including Iran over several decades. We carried out a study to provide current estimates of the prevalence and trends of hypertension, overweight and obesity along with the relationship between weight status and hypertension in Iranian school-children.

Method

This study was carried out among 1184 fifth-grade students, whose ages ranged from 11 to 14 years. Body weight, body mass index (BMI), height and waist circumference (WC), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were measured.

Results

22.04 and 5.32 % of students were overweight and obese, respectively. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was significantly higher among girls than boys (all p = 0.02), whereas the prevalence of hypertension was significantly higher in boys than girls (p = 0.001). Although 27 % of boys and 24.32 % of girls had abdominal obesity, no significant associations were reported between abdominal obesity and sex (p = 0.12). The prevalence of hypertension in children with normal weight, overweight and obesity, was 3, 9.7 and 17.8 %, respectively (p < 0.01). We have obtained that the mean values of weight and WC were significantly higher in boys than girls. Based on linear regression, every 1 cm increase in abdominal circumference leads to an estimated DBP and SBP increase of 0.173 and 0.164 mmHg, respectively (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

This study showed a high prevalence of hypertension and obesity in a school-based population in Tehran, Iran, in which the prevalence of hypertension was significantly and positively correlated with weight and WC.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to The Research Center of Virology and Dr. Keyvan for their financial support of this research and Iran National Science Foundation too.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mitra Zarrati & Farzad Shidfar

  2. Department of Nutrition, School of Health, Qazvin University of Medical Science, Qazvin, Iran

    Elham Hojaji

  3. Nutrition and Food Security Research Center, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

    Elham Razmpoosh

  4. Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

    Elham Razmpoosh

  5. Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Farinaz Nasiri Nezhad

  6. Department of Virology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Hossein Keyvani

  7. Immunology, Asthma and Allergy Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Raheleh Shokouhi Shoormasti

  8. Colorectal Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Farzad Shidfar

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  1. Mitra Zarrati
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Farzad Shidfar.

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No conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The protocol was approved by the Ethical Committee of Iran University of Medical Sciences, No. 90032714124. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with 1964 Helsiki deceleration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Zarrati, M., Hojaji, E., Razmpoosh, E. et al. Is high waist circumference and body weight associated with high blood pressure in Iranian primary school children?. Eat Weight Disord 21, 687–693 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-016-0307-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-016-0307-3

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