[Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in school-aged children]

This study was conducted to assess the distribution of cardiovascular risk factors (serum lipid profiles, BMI, blood pressure, fasting blood sugar) and evaluate the risk profile of CVD by the clustering of the cardiovascular risk factors in school-aged children in the Kyoung-Gi area.

The study sample consists of 208 11 year-old children (51.4% boys, 48.6% girls) who participated in a cross-sectional screening of cardiovascular risk factors. We surveyed their socio-demographic characteristics, measured the anthropometric variables and analyzed the biochemical markers.

Of the cardiovascular risk factors, the percentage risk of the BMI, dyslipidememia and hypertension were highest. The prevalence rates of total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol in girls was higher than in boys. Also, the associations of the BMI, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, systolic and diastolic blood pressures were highly significant. In addition, the proportion of subjects with 1, 2, 3 and 4 or more risk factors were 29.3, 12.5, 2.9 and 1.9%, respectively; therefore, a total of 97 subjects (46.6%) had at least one more risk factor.

From these findings, we concluded that the rates of hypercholesterolemia, cardiovascular risk groups and obesity prevalence of these groups were relatively high. These data provide further evidence that the early intervention for cardiovascular health prevention and promotion in school-aged children is necessary at the population level.