Prehypertension at school age, a challenge for Primary Health Care

Years ago it was considered that hypertension was manifested with low incidence in childhood; However, multiple studies in a variety of ethnic and racial groups have shown an increased prevalence in this age group. It was conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study at three medical offices of "Chiqui Gómez Lubián" Polyclinic in Santa Clara city, Villa Clara Province, during the period from January 2012 to May 2014 with the aim to identify how many children there are in this health area who have prehypertension as well as the risk factors that affect them. The study population was 104 schoolchildren and the sample was composed of 94 patients, it was excluded those patients who suffered from chronic noncommunicable diseases, except those who were interesting to the investigation. Anthropometric study, measurement of blood pressure and a questionnaire developed for this purpose were used as techniques. The family medical history, inadequate eating habits and excess weight and improper physical exercise predominated in patients diagnosed with prehypertension or hypertension. Finally it was concluded that school-stricken modifiable risk factors are most affected by hypertensive disease, which shows that if the lifestyles of these patients were modified it would achieve delay their appearances, improve their outcomes and delay their complications.