Prevalence and interrelations of cardiovascular risk factors in urban and rural Mexican adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the prevalence of coronary risk factors in Mexican adolescents, and their relations to school type, gender, and residence in urban and rural areas.


METHODS
A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 3121 junior high school students, aged 12 to 16 years, attending urban schools (eight public, n = 1850, two private, n = 480) and three rural public (n = 791) schools. Weight, height, waist circumference, blood pressure, and fasting glucose and lipid-lipoprotein levels were measured. Tobacco smoking and physical activity were also ascertained. The prevalence rates of cardiovascular risk factors were determined by gender and school type.


RESULTS
Obesity, overweight, high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, and physical inactivity were higher for urban than rural adolescents. The prevalence of the low HDL-C level was exceedingly high in adolescents of three school types (> 30%) but particularly in male rural students (48.9%). Compared with rural students, high LDL-cholesterol was twice as high in private schoolchildren. The prevalence of impaired fasting glucose was .35% in the whole population and much higher in obese males (1.6%) and obese females (2.4%).


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings highlight an epidemic of coronary risk factors mainly in adolescents living in the urban area, suggesting the importance of environmental factors.
Yamamoto-Kimura
Liria
L
Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico. liriayk@servidor.unam.mx
Posadas-Romero
Carlos
C
Posadas-Sánchez
Rosalinda
R
Zamora-González
José
J
Cardoso-Saldaña
Guillermo
G
Méndez Ramírez
Ignacio
I
D000293:Adolescent; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D050171:Dyslipidemias / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D012574:Schools; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D014505:Urban Population