Prevalence of hypertension and its relationship with BMI: A Study among the Sunni Muslims adolescents of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

Hypertension is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality world widely. Onset of hypertension occurs mainly in the younger phase. The increasing trend of hypertension in children and adolescents in India may be due to the changes in the life styles, food habits, mental stress, playing video games in leisure time, television and lack of physical exercise. Keeping these in mind, the objectives of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of hypertension in school going adolescents and its relationship with various BMI indices. This cross-sectional study was conducted among the 159 school going Sunni Muslims adolescents aged between 12 to 18 years residing at Aurangabad Jagir and Chillawava (sub urban areas), adjacent to the Lucknow City. Variables like Height, weight and Blood pressure level were measured following standard method. Statistical Analysis like mean, SD, t- test, ANOVA, correlation and regression were done using SPSS (V.20). The mean Height (cm) and Weight (kg) among the studied boys were 157.9 (12.1) and 44.0 (11.3) respectively whereas, among girls these were 148.4 (7.2) and 39.0 (7.7). These differences based on sex were statistically highly significant. The mean BMI among girls was slightly higher and this was not significant. The mean Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) among boys was 119.1 (13.8) and among girls this was 113.7 (12.5) and the difference was statistically significant (t = 2.46; p < 0.01). The mean (SD) Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) in boys and girls were 75.9(10.6) and 74.5(10.3) respectively, which was not significant. Age changes had a great impact on all the anthropometric variables when considered as sex combined. SBP was correlated with severe thinness, whereas, DBP was correlated with Thinness. In this study we also observed that mean BMI was increases as the age increases and mean SBP and DBP was increases as BMI increases. The study revealed the fact that hypertension is prevalent among both the thin and severely thin (BMI group) adolescents.