Abstract

Hypertension in children may progress as they grow older. Obesity has been identified as one factor that increases blood pressure (BP). Body Mass Index is an indicator that is used in measuring ones’ overweight or obesity status. This study was done to analyze the correlation between BMI with BP in children aged 7-12 years in SD Negeri 20 Banda Aceh. This study is a cross-sectional study that employed a stratified random sampling technique to select 100 children to participate as respondents. There were 50 males and 50 females, with 60 children had underweight status, 18 children had normal BMI, 14 children were in overweight status and 8 children were obese. The average systolic BP in males was 90.4 ± 6.5 mmHg and 90.1 ± 7.3 mmHg in females, and the average diastolic was found at 66.7 ± 4.4 mmHg in males and 65.8 ± 5.9 mmHg in females. The result of Pearson correlation test conducted in this study showed a significant correlation between IMT and BP where systolic BP was (r = 0.439) and diastolic BP was (r = 0.309). It can be drawn into conclusion that higher IMT value seems to be followed by higher BP.