Associations Between Obesity and Elevated Blood Pressure Among Children in Five Low-Income Northern California Elementary Schools

ABSTRACT ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN OBESITY AND ELEVATED BLOOD PRESSURE AMONG CHILDREN IN FIVE LOW-INCOME NORTHERN CALIFORNIA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS by © Martin J. Frigaard 2011 Master of Arts in Kinesiology California State University, Chico Fall 2011 Childhood and adolescent obesity and hypertension are predictive of adulthood obesity, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease risk. The purpose of this crosssectional study was to examine BMI-for-age as an independent risk factor for hypertension among 166 5th grade students attending five different low-income elementary schools. Results indicate that 32% of students were either overweight or obese. This rate is the same as the national average, but slightly below the California average reported for this population. The relationship between BMI-for-age and hypertension risk was examined using chi-square analysis. BMI-for-age was found to be significantly related to hypertension risk, (p = 0.003); a more than three-fold proportion of over weight/obese students (53%) were pre-hypertension/hypertension, compared to underweight/ normal students (15%). Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was analyzed as a function of BMI group (underweight, normal, overweight and obese) using one-way ANOVA with repeat comparisons. A significant difference was found in mean SBP across BMI groups (p 0.001). Post-hoc Tukey comparisons indicated that obese students had higher systolic BP (M = 116) than either overweight (M = 111) or normal weight/underweight students (M = 104 mmHg). These findings support the need for early health risk screenings and prevention programs. Future research should be directed towards reversing increasing levels of weight-relate risk factors for cardiovascular disease in low-income populations.