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Nadia Jardim, Rui Povoa, Braulio Luna Fo, Luciano Cavichio, Eduardo Costa, Celso Ferreira, Claudio Ohashi, Marcio Guimaraes, Antonio C. C. Carvalho, P-477: Prevalence of hypertension in adolescents of the Brazilian Amazonic region, American Journal of Hypertension, Volume 14, Issue S1, April 2001, Page 191A, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0895-7061(01)01691-0
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Abstract
Hypertension prevalence in adolescents is a controversial issue with rates that ranging from 4 to 28%. There is also lack of information about its prevalence in a population living in a tropical area like the Amazonic region with high temperatures and humidity all year round.
The objective was evaluate the hypertension prevalence in a young urban population of the Amazonic region.
From the list of local schooling system and considering rates extracted from Brazilian census data, we selected a random probabilistic sampling of 649 teenagers, stratified by age, gender, race and socioeconomic class in Belem, capital of Para state, Amazonic region of Brazil. All teenagers had their arterial blood pressure (BP), weight, height, body mass index (BMI) and stage of sexual maturity evaluated. Ages ranged between 10 and 18 years old.
The hypertension prevalence (greater than 95 th percentile according to ACC/AHA-Task Force Report) was 3.8% (3.5 % for girls and 4.4% for boys). There was no significant difference of BP and BMI with races (white, black and mulato). The correlation of age, weight and height against systolic and diastolic BP showed an increase in its levels directly related to those variables. BP was increased only for boys whose ages were above 12 years old.
Hypertension prevalence in adolescents of the Brazilian Amazonic region was much less than expected from data of the medical literature for a population with similar demographic patterns. Regional food intake as well as geographical aspects, besides cultural and anthropologic variables, need to be investigated.
