Childhood obesity and elevated blood pressure in a rural population of northern Greece.

Introduction: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of childhood obesity and elevated blood pressure (BP) in a rural population of northern Greece.

Methods: In total, 572 schoolchildren between the age of 4 and 10 years were examined. Obesity was defined using three different standards: (1) body mass index (BMI) charts of the French society of Paediatrics (FR), selected because of the low cardiovascular risk profile and low prevalence of obesity in France; (2) United States BMI CDC charts (US), selected because of the high prevalence of childhood obesity in the USA; and the reference curves of the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF).