Prevalencia de hipertensión arterial en alumnos de 4^o básico a 1^o medio en un colegio de Santiago (Chile)

Objective: High Blood Pressure(BP) is one of the principal cardiovascular risks. Nevertheless, it is not included in the physical examination of people younger than 15 years old, which does not allow high BP early detection. The aim of the study is to determine the presence of elevated arterial blood pressure in children's from 9 to 16 years old, and to verify if there exists an association with risk factors considered by literature. Materials and methods: Non-experimental, exploratory, descriptive and transversal study. The sample consisted of 109 children of both sexes. The arterial pressure was obtained through the standardized measurement of arterial blood pressure of the Chilean ministry of health in two occasions. Results: Alterations of the arterial blood pressure were detected in 19,6% of the children, with 4 children's presenting high BP, equivalent to 3,6%. Discussion and conclusions: There was no association between the studied risk factors and the high BP. This might be attributed to the fact that the studied factors operate in the long term, cholesterol data were obtained through a survey, not through laboratory tests and the obtained sample was small. The presence and risk of high BP in children reveal a weakness in its screening and suggest including measurement of arterial blood pressure as an obligation in children's health controls.