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Anthropometric measurements and body mass index in Croatian school children – indicators of cardiovascular risks

Introduction: The study is a part of research project: “ Cardiovascular risks of school children and youth – intervention model development” , approved by Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports. The objective was to investigate which anthropometric measurements, such as height, weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) is better predictor of blood pressure - systolic blood pressure (SPB) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Methods: The study included 11 480 children (5694 male and 5786 female) aged 6 - 18, representative sample of Croatian school children. Anthropometric measurements included height, weight, BMI (kg/m² ; ; ), waist circumference and blood pressure measurements. Statistical analyses were performed by STATISTICA 8.0 for Windows: StatSoft, Inc., 2000. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’ s correlation analysis were calculated. Results: A statistically significant correlation was observed between WC and BMI, Pearson’ s correlation coefficient (r) was 0.8805, significant at 0.001 for boys and 0.8419 significant at 0.001 for girls. Pearson’ s correlation coefficient between WC and SBP was r = 0.5413, P<0.001 for boys and r = 0.3866, P<0.001 for girls, between WC and DBP was r = 0.3575, P<0.001 for boys and r = 0.2732, P<0.001 for girls, between BMI and SBP was r = 0.5178, P<0.001 for boys and r = 0.4007, P<0.001 for girls, between BMI and DBP was r = 0.3538, P<0.001 for boys and r = 0.3097, P<0.001 for girls. Conclusion: Generally the strongest correlation was founded between waist circumference and BMI. Waist circumference stronger correlated with systolic blood pressure than with BMI in boys.

anthropometric measurements; children; cardiovascular diseases

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