Blood pressure in primary school children in Uganda: a cross-sectional survey

BMC Public Health

Table 1 Characteristics of study participants

Variable	Category	Rural schools (n = 184)	Urban schools (n = 368)	P-value^a
Age	7-8 years	10 (5.4%)	23 (6.3%)	0.58
	9-10 years	56 (30.4%)	129 (35.1%)
	11-12 years	71 (38.6%)	125 (34.0%)
	13-14 years	43 (23.4%)	77 (20.9%)
	15-18 years	4 (2.2%)	14 (3.8%)
Gender	Male	94 (51.1%)	162 (44.0%)	0.12
Gender	Female	90 (48.9%)	206 (56.0%)	0.12
BMI-for-age Z-score^b	Underweight	4 (2.2%)	6 (1.6%)	0.03
	Normal	163 (90.1%)	298 (81.6%)
	Overweight	14 (7.7%)	57 (15.6%)
	Obese	0 (0%)	4 (1.1%)
Family history of high blood pressure	None	98 (53.3%)	222 (60.3%)	0.28
	Any	67 (36.4%)	112 (30.4%)
	Not known	19 (10.3%)	34 (9.2%)
Cigarette smoke exposure	Unexposed	134 (74.0%)	295 (81.5%)	0.05
Cigarette smoke exposure	Exposed	47 (26.0%)	67 (18.5%)	0.05
Malaria^c	Uninfected	111 (62.7%)	103 (86.6%)	<0.001
Malaria^c	Infected	66 (37.3%)	16 (13.5%)	<0.001
Schistosoma mansoni ^c	Uninfected	171 (97.2%)	99 (89.2%)	0.01
Schistosoma mansoni ^c	Infected	5 (2.8%)	12 (10.8%)	0.01
Soil transmitted helminths^c	Uninfected	158 (89.8%)	98 (89.1%)	0.86
Soil transmitted helminths^c	Infected	18 (10.2%)	12 (10.9%)	0.86

^aP-value for difference in distribution of characteristic between children from rural and urban schools; ^bCategorisation of BMI-for-age Z-score using WHO-recommended thresholds: underweight (Z-score< -2), normal (-2 ≤ Z-score<1), overweight (1 ≤ Z-score<2), obese (Z-score ≥2); ^cMalaria, Schistosoma mansoni and soil transmitted helminth infection status were ascertained for a randomly selected sample of 20 children per class in the urban schools; Missing values in rural and urban school participants, respectively: BMI-for-age Z-score 3, 3; cigarette smoke exposure 3, 6; malaria 7, 1; Schistosoma mansoni 8, 9; soil transmitted helminths 8, 10.

ISSN: 1471-2458