title: Prevalence of high blood pressure and association with obesity in Spanish schoolchildren aged 4-6 years old.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The prevalence of high blood pressure in children is increasing worldwide, largely, but not entirely, driven by the concurrent childhood obesity epidemic. The aims of this study were to examine the prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension in 4-to-6-year-old Spanish schoolchildren, and to evaluate the association between different blood pressure (BP) components with different adiposity indicators.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study including a sample of 1.604 schoolchildren aged 4-to-6-years belonging to 21 schools from the provinces of Ciudad Real and Cuenca, Spain. We measured height, weight, body mass index (BMI), fat mass percentage (%FM), triceps skinfold thickness (TST), waist circumference (WC), systolic and diastolic BP, mean arterial pressure and pulse pressure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The estimates of prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension were 12.3% and 18.2%, respectively. In both sexes, adiposity indicators were positively and significantly associated with all BP components (p<0.001), thus schoolchildren in the higher adiposity categories had significantly higher BP levels (p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results show a high prevalence of high blood pressure in Spanish children. Moreover, high levels of adiposity are associated with high blood pressure in early childhood, which support that it could be related to cardiovascular risk later in life.
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Faculty of Nursing, Toledo, Spain.
authors.forename: Noelia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Martín-Espinosa
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Health and Social Research Centre, Cuenca, Spain.|Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Faculty of Nursing, Cuenca, Spain.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Díez-Fernández
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Health and Social Research Centre, Cuenca, Spain.|Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Faculty of Education, Ciudad Real, Spain.
authors.forename: Mairena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sánchez-López
authors.affiliation: Hospital General Universitario, Ciudad Real, Spain.
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rivero-Merino
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Health and Social Research Centre, Cuenca, Spain.|Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Faculty of Nursing, Cuenca, Spain.
authors.forename: Lidia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lucas-De La Cruz
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Health and Social Research Centre, Cuenca, Spain.|Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Faculty of Nursing, Cuenca, Spain.
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Solera-Martínez
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Health and Social Research Centre, Cuenca, Spain.|Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Talca, Chile.
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Martínez-Vizcaíno
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity / Q000502:physiology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003971:Diastole / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015995:Prevalence; D012574:Schools / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012885:Skinfold Thickness; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D013599:Systole / Q000502:physiology; D055105:Waist Circumference / Q000502:physiology