title: Prevalence of hypertension in primary school-children in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hypertension is defined as average systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure (BP) ≥95th per centile for gender, age and height, and pre-hypertension as ≥90th and <95th per centile, measured on three occasions. Although the prevalence of hypertension during  childhood is lower than that in adulthood, it is not rare in children.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the prevalence of hypertension and its severity in primary school-children in Port Harcourt.
  
  
  METHODS
  A stratified, multi-staged sampling technique was used to recruit  pupils between 6 and 12 years of age in 13 primary schools. Data were collected using a pre-tested questionnaire completed by parents/guardians. The average of three blood pressure measurements was taken for each pupil using standardized techniques.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 1302 pupils  of whom 585 (44·9%) males and 717 (55·1%) females were studied, giving a male to female ratio of 1:1·2. The prevalence of hypertension was 61 (4·7%), 55 (4·2%) with stage 1 and six (0·5%) with stage 2 hypertension. Sixty (4·6%) of the pupils  had pre-hypertension. Twenty-three (3·9%) of the 585 males and 38 (5·3%) of the 717 females were hypertensive (P = 0·25). The mean (SD) age of 8·83 (1·90) years for the normotensive children was higher than the mean (SD) age of 8·56  (2·05) years for the hypertensive children (P = 0·27). Of the study subjects, 152 (11·7%) were underweight, 998 (76·7%) were of normal weight, 75 (5·7%) were overweight and 77 (5·9%) were obese. The prevalence of hypertension among  the different weight groups fell steadily from 13 (16·9%) in the obese children to 4 (5·3%) in the overweight children, to 43 (4·3%) in the normal weight children and one (0·7%) in the underweight children (P<0·001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence  of hypertension in school-children in Port Harcourt is 4·7% which is similar to that in other studies in Nigeria and elsewhere. A higher BMI was significantly associated with a higher prevalence of hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers State, Nigeria. bomadatown@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Boma Alali
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Okoh
authors.forename: Edward Achi
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Alikor
authors.forename: Nwaduito
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akani
mesh_terms: D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012574:Schools; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires