PREVALENCE OF CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTORS IN PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN CALABAR

Abstract

Childhood is considered the structuring period of life during which
such patterns as diets and lifestyle are formed and fixed, with
predisposition to developing cardiovascular diseases in adulthood. Hence,
identification of individual risk factors in childhood is a good method to
assess cardiovascular risk level in apparently healthy children, thereby
preventing cardiovascular disease in adulthood. The objective was to study
cardiovascular risk factors in primary school children in Calabar, South
South Nigeria.
This was a cross sectional descriptive study, conducted between 1st
February to 29th July, 2016 among primary school children 6 to 12 years of
age, in Calabar Municipal Council Area.
Eight schools, 2 public and 6 private primary schools were randomly
selected. Consecutive sampling method was used to recruit subjects who
met the inclusion criteria for the study. Parental consent was obtained.
General physical examination was carried out in all the subjects, their
anthropometry, blood pressure, blood sugar and lipid profiles were done at
their various school sick bays. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 21.0
and P value of < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant.
A total of 374 primary school children were recruited for the study,
consisting of 160 (42.8%) males and 214 (57.2%) females, with a male to
female ratio of 1:1.3.
Of the studied population, 31 (8.3%) were overweight (BMI 85teh to
94th percentile) while 15 (4.0%) were obese (BMI ≥ 95th percentile). The
proportion of those with waist circumference (WC) ≥ 90thpercentile was 29
(7.8%). Regarding systolic blood pressure, 29 (7.8%) and 9 (2.4%) had pre
hypertension and hypertension respectively. While, 24 (6.4%) and 1 (0.3%)
had diastolic pre-hypertension and hypertension respectively. With regard
to the lipid profile, 68 (18.2%) had borderline elevated total cholesterol,
while 25 (6.7%) had abnormally elevated total cholesterol. The proportion
of studied participants with borderline elevated triglycerides was 112
(29.9%) and 86 (23.0%) had abnormally raised TG. The proportion of
participants with HDL less than 40mg/dl was 121 (32.4%).
Of the 15 participants with obesity 6 (40%) were males while 9 (60%) were
females. However, the difference was not statistically significant (P=
0.861). Also, the relationship between social class and BMI was not
statistically significant (P= 0.029). Also more females than males were
hypertensive and more in the upper social class but the relationship

between sex, social class and systolic blood hypertension (P =0.071), (P=
0.419) was not statistically significant.
In conclusion, this study reveals that there are children with
cardiovascular risk factors in Calabar Municipal Local Government Area of
Cross River State. This picture may be related to the increase in sedentary
life with increase in automobiles, changes in lifestyle and poor food
choices. Hence, the need to improve health related behaviours within the
family with the aim of reducing the prevalence of cardiovascular risk
factors among children.
Among the study participants, 12 had a combination of two risk factors, 11
had a combination of three different risk factors, 5 had four risk factors
while 2 participants had a combination of five different risk factors while
the remaining participants with risk factors had 1 risk factor each.