title: Prevalence of Hypertension and Obesity-related Hypertension in Urban School-aged Children in Rasht.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hypertension is a worldwide health concern. Complications of hypertension not only affect adult patients, but also involve children. Given the importance of assessing children with hypertension in order to decrease adulthood complications, we aimed to assess the prevalence of hypertension in urban school-aged children in Rasht, Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted on 2072 school-aged children in Rasht, Iran, from January 2013 to December 2015. Inclusion criteria were age between 7 and 17 years and residence and attending school in the urban area of Rasht.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 205 (9.9%) and 144 (6.9%) of the participants were hypertensive and prehypertensive, respectively. The mean systolic blood pressure was 124.54 ± 11.86 mm Hg in the children. The prevalence of obesity in the children was 3.5%. Comparing the normal, prehypertensive, and hypertensive groups, there was a significantly increasing trend regarding age, height, weight, and body mass index associated with higher blood pressure categories.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study showed a high rate of hypertension among school-aged children in Rasht. Hypertensive children tended to be have a higher body mass index than the prehypertensive and normal-weight participants. Case identification and early assessment of these children is recommended.
authors.forename: Hamidreza
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Badeli
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hassankhani
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Naeemi
authors.forename: Sahar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hosseinzadeh
authors.forename: Shima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mehrabi
authors.forename: Motahhareh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pourkarimi
authors.forename: Sajjad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hosseini
authors.forename: Pourya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rahbar Nikoukar
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nezamdoust
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rahimi
authors.affiliation: Student Research Center, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran. pourrajabi.aseme@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Asemeh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pourrajabi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D058246:Prehypertension / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D014505:Urban Population