title: Study of blood pressure profile of school children 6-15 years in a rural setting of Maharashtra.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  High blood pressure in childhood is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke in adulthood. There is enough evidence to suggest that the roots of essential hypertension in adults extend into childhood. There is a paucity of literature on the blood pressure measurements amongst children. This study was done to study blood pressure profile of school children in rural area of Maharashtra.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This cross sectional study was carried out to determine the prevalence of hypertension in children 6-15 years and to study the association between selected variables and blood pressure.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was done using a predesigned questionnaire and making measurements of height, BMI and Blood pressure using standardized physical instruments following standard guidelines. The data was collected and analyzed using appropriate statistical tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of hypertension in the study was found to be 4.4% with 3.5% in females and 5.1% in males.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the study, hypertension in students was found to be significantly associated with higher BMI and with family history of hypertension. Age, height and BMI were found to correlate positively with Blood pressure levels in this study.
authors.affiliation: Officer Commanding, Station Health Organization, Jhansi, India.
authors.forename: Diva
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Dept of Community Medicine, AFMC, Pune 40, India.
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Kushwaha
authors.affiliation: Professor, Dept of Community Medicine, AFMC, Pune 40, India.
authors.forename: Atul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kotwal
authors.affiliation: Scientist 'E', Dept of Community Medicine, AFMC, Pune 40, India.
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Basannar
authors.affiliation: Professor & HOD, Dept of Community Medicine, AFMC, Pune 40, India.
authors.forename: Ajoy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mahen
keywords: Blood pressure; Children; Rural