Prevalence of Cardiovascular Risk Factor in Elementary School Students

Background: CVDs (cardiovascular diseases) are a major cause of death and expenditure on public health in the world. CVRFs (cardiovascular risk factors) have increased in the adult population and in children and adolescents. Objective: To obtain the prevalence of CVRFs in elementary school students. Methods: The cross-sectional and observational study was carried out with 379 schoolchildren aged 10 to 15 years old, in a Brazilian capital. The variables studied were BP (blood pressure), physical activity level (IPAQ-short version) and visceral fat, through the BMI (body mass index), WC (waist circumference) and the WHR (waist-hip ratio). In the statistical analysis a significance level of 5% (p < 0.05) was adopted. Results: The main alterations were related to physical inactivity (31.2%), overweight (29.1%) and high BP (24.5%), the correlation between BMI and WC showed good correlation (r = 0.787, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Physical inactivity was the most prevalent risk factor among school children, followed by overweight and high BP, in the FTS (full-time school) higher prevalence of these factors was observed. The BMI and WC showed a good correlation for the results that had the risk of diverting the probabilities of the altered BMI, evidencing that the BMI and WC measures became more effective in predicting CVD than just a single use of one of them.