[Environmental and anthropometric factors associated with childhood arterial hypertension].

Childhood obesity is considered pandemic with significant social and economical costs because of its high morbidity and mortality. To evaluate the association between biological and environmental factors and infantile arterial hypertension (AH), a cross-sectional study was performed with 701 children, ranging from 5 to 9 years old, from Feira de Santana, BA. The arterial pressure was measured following the criteria of the Update on the 1987 Task Force Report on High Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents. Overweight and obesity were defined as body-mass index equal or above the 85th and the 95th percentiles for age and gender, respectively. Interviews with the children's responsible were used to determine the role of gender, ethnic group, age, familiar history of AH, and type of school. Overweight (OR= 4.49; rho= 0.04), obesity (OR= 13.05; rho= 0.000) and studying at private school (OR= 1.93; r= 0.13) were observed as predictive and independent factors associated with hypertension. Therefore, biological and environmental factors seem to be involved on the genesis of AH in children.