Objective: To identify the prevalence and factors associated with hypertension in adolescents.
Subjects and methods: Cross-sectional study of 1,716 adolescents of a cohort study, aged from 10 to 16 years old sociodemographic, economic, and lifestyle characteristics were obtained from an interview, and birth weight from hospital records. Hypertension was defined as systolic or diastolic blood pressure above the 95th percentile according to the classification recommended by the Second Task Force High Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents. Nutritional status was diagnosed by body mass index (BMI), according to the z score from curves published by the World Health Organization. Waist circumference was measured at the natural waist. The association between hypertension and the explanatory variables was measured using logistic regression.
Results: The adolescents interviewed represent 71.4% of the baseline, and 50.7% of them were males. The prevalence of hypertension was 11.7%. In the multivariate analysis, after adjustment for age sex and skin color, hypertension was associated with obesity [OR = 2.27, (95%) CI = 1.64 to 3.14] but not associated with waist circumference after adjusting for BMI. Early life factors were not associated with hypertension in adolescence.
Conclusion: The results show an association between obesity and hypertension among adolescents.