Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The childhood obesity epidemic has caused the global prevalence of hypertension (HTN) in children to increase from 2% to 4%. However, there is limited data regarding this issue in Pakistan. Hence this cross-sectional study aims to document the prevalence of HTN and its risk factors among children visiting the out patient department (OPD) of a government hospital in Karachi, which is one of the largest cities in Pakistan. METHODS: One thousand children aged between 4 and 12 years who visited the OPD in October 2019 were included. Blood pressures (BPs) for each child were measured manually and recorded. Their guardians were then interviewed to assess the risk factors present in each child. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). RESULTS: Among all the children, those between 4 and 7 years of age had a higher prevalence of HTN (19.2%; 9.2% stage 1 and 10.0% stage 2) than children aged between 8 and 12 years (14.5%; 8.0% stage 1 and 6.5% stage 2). Obese children between the age of 4 and 7 years (OR = 3.11) were more likely to develop HTN. Moreover, children with a positive family history of HTN were 1.43 times more likely to have HTN and 1.32 times more likely to have pre-HTN. There was no significant association of gender, artificial feeding, low birth weight, and maternal smoking with HTN. CONCLUSION: The prevalence is particularly higher in children aged between 4 and 7 years (19.2%) and there is a strong association between high BMI (body mass index), family history of HTN, and high-fat diet intake with HTN in children. There was no significant variation of prevalence between both genders.