[Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in child and adolescent students in the city of Maceió].

Objective: To determine the prevalence of systemic arterial hypertension (SAH), "risk of overweight," overweight, sedentary lifestyle, and smoking in children and adolescents from 7 to 17 years of age, of both sexes, in public and private schools in the city of Marceió, in the state of Alagoas.

Methods: A cross-sectional epidemiological study with sampling from a population pool was carried out. It comprised elementary and middle schools, randomly selected.