Cardiovascular screening program in children in Budapest

*Judit Kormos-Tasi¹, Erika Gácsi¹, Fanni Tóth², Antal Czinner ^{1, 2}, László Szabó^{1, 2}

Summary
Introduction. Obesity is one of the most common health problems of the developed countries. The prevalence is increasing among adults and children alike. In Hungary, the prevalence in children is 9-10%. In 1998, WHO (World Health Organization) classified obesity as a disease. Obesity, and other metabolic, endocrine and musculoskeletal diseases that are caused by obesity are seen as one of the biggest public health-related problem nowadays. Obesity increases the morbidity and mortality in all the populations.
Aim. The aim of our screening program was to investigate the prevalence of obesity and its association with hypertension in children.
Material and methods. A screening program was conducted between April 2010 and May 2011. The screening consisted of measuring blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol, blood glucose, weight, height, calculating BMI, and determination of body composition.
Results. 2226 children aged 14-18 fullfilling the inclusion criteria participated in the program. 13% of the participants were overweight (i.e. their BMI was in between the 85^th and 95^th percentile of the BMI for their age) and 4% of them were obese (i.e. their BMI was above the 95^th percentile for their age). High body fat content was detected in 12.98% of girls and 5.9% of boys that participated in the study. 66% of girls and 81% of boys with elevated BMI had high body fat content. Mean cholesterol level was significantly higher in the group of overweight and obese participants than in the group of participants with normal BMI. Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure differed significantly between groups with different BMI for both girls and boys, with overweight participants most likely to have pathologically high blood pressure.
Conclusions. There was a significant increase in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure with an increase in BMI. The results of our study may help design preventive programmes for obesity and hypertension in children.

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