Hypertension catches them young in rural pockets too!

If you thought that urban sedentary lifestyle, junk food and resultant obesity was contributing to higher body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure among children in the city and that rural kids are much healthier, then here’s a new perspective.

A study conducted by doctors of the community medicine department at the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) in Pune revealed that on an average 4.4% of rural kids aged between 6 and 15 years suffered from hypertension.

Increased body mass index, height and even diet patterns such as non-vegetarian diet and high intake of salt were found to have a significant correlation with risk of hypertension.

The study published in the latest issue of the medical journal of the armed forces studied 522 kids from government schools in rural Maharashtra. However, any child with a known medical condition that directly influences blood pressure was excluded from the study.

“Children were studied according to their BMI, birth weight, salt intake, dietary habits and history of hypertension among their parents. It was observed that most of the children had a normal range of BMI, while more than 2/3rd subjects were non-vegetarians and children from households with salt consumption of 150g/capita/month, which is the prescribed limit,” said researchers.

The prevalence of hypertension in the study was found to be 4.4% with 3.5% in females and 5.1% in males.

Multiple factors (age, height and BMI) were found to correlate positively with blood pressure levels in students. Even as the study recommended that annual school health medical examinations must include blood pressure measurement as it makes it easier to identify children needing follow-ups and intervention, pediatricians agreed to it saying that such programmes should be introduced in both rural and urban areas.

“We generally think that children in rural areas are more fit, less obese and have fewer lifestyle issues than urban kids, thus making them less prone to hypertension. However, a high-salt diet, chips and other junk food is catching up in rural pockets as well. That’s why now we need to introduce such screenings at school health programmes irrespective of urban or rural pockets,” said pediatrician Dr Dilip Sarda.