Nassar A. A. Omar^{1, 2}, Momen Elshazley^{3, 4,}, Salah M. El Sayed^{5, 6}, Amal N. A. Al- lithy⁷, Manal Mohamed Helmy Nabo⁸

Assessing nutritional status using body mass index (BMI) measurements and body compositions evaluation could be simple clinical reliable tools and indicators of adolescent health. On the other hand, hypertension becomes a serious public health problem affecting both children and adolescents. This study aimed at evaluating the association of body composition alterations and development of blood pressure changes among adolescents in Taif governorate, Saudi Arabia. A cross sectional survey design was adopted in which 701 children (aged 12-15) years in Taif city were drawn and randomly selected from the preparatory schools. Measurement of systolic/diastolic blood pressure and comprehensive assessment of anthropometric parameters were done for all participants including weight, height, waist and hip circumferences in addition to triceps, biceps, subscapular and supra-iliac skinfold thickness. Body mass index (BMI), percentage body fat, waist: hip, total body fat and lean body mass were also calculated. In our study, 29.8% of participants were underweight, 9.8% were overweight, 4% were obese and 56.3% showed normal BMI. 6.7% of the participants suffered from hypotension while 6.1% had hypertension. Interestingly, BMI was significantly associated with a greater prevalence of hypertension (normal weight 1.91%, overweight 2.90%, and obesity 10 %). In conclusion, our study sheds the light on the importance of using BMI and anthropometric measures in evaluating the unhealthy weight status of adolescent school students as early predictors of hypertension development. Saudi Anthropometric measurements are comparable to international standards. The future life style changes (sedentary life vs. exercise and food type) impact the development of diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome in the Saudi society.

anthropometry, obesity, overweight, hypertension, underweight