Ludhiana, September 10
One in every three teenagers in the city is likely to suffer from hypertension (high blood pressure). This has been indicated by a yearlong study on around 850 schoolchildren (age between 13 and 18) from five public schools in the city.
Other worrying results include high total cholesterol in the fourth of the children surveyed. The study also found that weight among children swung to extremes, while a third of them were severely underweight. Over 13 per cent were overweight and clinically obese. The study, “Lipid Profile and blood cholesterol in children from affluent families”, has been conducted by an independent source of a pharma major company in association with Metro Heart Institute.
“Heart disease is striking Indians at younger ages. This prompted us to survey teenagers to see how early disease-causing factors set in and whether modifications can be made to change this,” says Dr H.S. Bedi, Chairman Cardiovascular Surgery, Metro Heart Institution, NCR Delhi, at Ludhiana Metro Kulwant Heart Institute.
“The focus was on affluent children as they are more likely to have unhealthy lifestyle because of easier access to junk foods (pizza, burgers, hot dogs and cold drinks), said Dr P. Lal, Director Metro Heart Institute. Though it was known that lifestyle diseases were manifested at a young age, the finding showing a high number of students with hypertension (over 120 mm hg) and high cholesterol (over 170 mg/dl of blood) came as a surprise. “If these children do not become more active and make dietary changes at once, we will see an outbreak of cardiovascular disease and diabetes in the next two decades,” said Dr Bedi.
The researchers say the extreme difference in body weight of the children surveyed was explained by the fact that one group (boys) was found to be eating high calorie food, while the other (girls) was dieting excessively.
Only around 50 per cent of the children were in the healthy weight group, defined by a body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 25 (BMI is calculated by dividing the weight in kg by height in metre squared).
“Every third child had BMI below 18.5, while over 13 per cent were overweight or clinically obese, showing that the children are either not eating or eating the wrong food,” says Dr Bedi. In any case, both groups were undernourished because neither was eating what the body needed.
A common thing seen among these obese children was that either of the mother or father was suffering from hypertension or had undergone stent or bypass surgery and the parents had still not corrected the lifestyle as well as dietary modifications, which was a cause of great concern for these obese teens.
A random survey reveals the opposite in six rural schools of the city where children are much healthier than their counterparts in urban public schools and, surprisingly, many of them have not tasted pizza, burger and noodles etc. These rural children were found anemic instead.
