Overweight and increased blood pressure in preschool-aged children.

This paper presents the data on height, weight, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure of 3-7 year old children. A sample of preschoolers (n=1441) was drawn from the kindergartens in Kaunas city (Lithuania). The 5 ( th ), 10 ( th ), 50 ( th ), 90 ( th ) and 95 ( th ) percentiles were estimated for studied variables and the criteria for the overweight and increased blood pressure were calculated. It was shown that body mass index could be used as an indicator of the child's physical development. Its value 14-18 kg/m ( 2 ) indicates an optimal child's growing, value < or = 14 kg/m ( 2 ) - the underweight, value > or =18 kg/m ( 2 ) - the overweight. According to these criteria it was found that 7.4% of 3-7 year old children were underweight, 5.8% overweight. Increased blood pressure (over 90 ( th ) percentile of systolic or/and diastolic blood pressure) had 21.4% of examined children. The prevalence of increased blood pressure was significantly higher in obese than in normal weight children. We conclude that the significant prevalence of childhood overweight and increased blood pressure emerge in preschool aged children. Thus, we recommend investigations of prevention and intervention programs to be used in the preschool setting.