PMID- 19555129
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20090915
LR  - 20220310
IS  - 1445-6354 (Electronic)
IS  - 1445-6354 (Linking)
VI  - 9
IP  - 2
DP  - 2009 Apr-Jun
TI  - Childhood obesity and elevated blood pressure in a rural population of northern 
      Greece.
PG  - 1150
AB  - 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). Children with elevated BP were defined 
      as BP > or = 95th percentile for age, gender and height, according to the Greek 
      national charts. RESULTS: The prevalence of obesity for boys was 13.6% (IOTF), 
      23.7% (US) and 31.7% (FR); for girls 14.4% (IOTF), 21.1% (US) and 35.1% (FR). The 
      prevalence of elevated BP was 7.9% (45 children). It was 5 to 6 times more common 
      for obese than non-obese children to have elevated BP (relative risk of 5.2 to 
      6.2 and odds ratio 6.3 to 7.7). CONCLUSIONS: The results confirm the high 
      prevalence of childhood obesity in Greece, in this study found to be more 
      prevalent in rural than urban Greece. The IOTF criteria tend to underestimate 
      obesity and may not be optimal for use in a primary clinical care setting where 
      the approach is for health education and patient treatment, rather than purely 
      epidemiological. The study also confirms a strong relationship between high BP 
      and increased BMI.
FAU - Mavrakanas, Thomas A
AU  - Mavrakanas TA
AD  - Nea Madytos Health Centre, Thessaloniki, Greece. thomas_mavrakanas@yahoo.fr
FAU - Konsoula, Georgia
AU  - Konsoula G
FAU - Patsonis, Ioannis
AU  - Patsonis I
FAU - Merkouris, Bodossakis P
AU  - Merkouris BP
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20090625
PL  - Australia
TA  - Rural Remote Health
JT  - Rural and remote health
JID - 101174860
SB  - IM
MH  - Child
MH  - Child, Preschool
MH  - Female
MH  - Greece/epidemiology
MH  - Humans
MH  - Hypertension/diagnosis/*epidemiology
MH  - Male
MH  - Mass Screening
MH  - Obesity/diagnosis/*epidemiology
MH  - Prevalence
MH  - Rural Health
MH  - School Health Services
MH  - Sex Distribution
EDAT- 2009/06/27 09:00
MHDA- 2009/09/16 06:00
CRDT- 2009/06/27 09:00
PHST- 2009/06/27 09:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2009/06/27 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2009/09/16 06:00 [medline]
AID - 1150 [pii]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Rural Remote Health. 2009 Apr-Jun;9(2):1150. Epub 2009 Jun 25.