Introduction

Cardiovascular diseases and the complications of diabetes mellitus account for most of adult mortality in Mexico. Abdominal obesity (AO) and alterations in blood pressure (BP) are two of its fundamental determinants. The pathological changes caused by these entities have been demonstrated in children from 3 years of age.

Objective

To analyze the association between socioeconomic status, episodes of food shortages, sedentary lifestyle and soft drinks consumption with the development of obesity and alterations in BP in children of school age in an elementary school during 2015-2016 in Mérida Yucatán México.

Materials and methods

264 participants, aged between 6 and 12 years were evaluated for weight, height, abdominal perimeter, BP. Semi-structured interviews were used to determine socioeconomic status, episodes of food shortages, soft drinks consumption, and sedentary lifestyle. Descriptive statistics were determined; Chi-square tests and Student's T-tests were used for association analysis.

Results

A prevalence for overweigh in terms of BMI of 28.4% was found, 28% for abdominal obesity, and 15.7% for alterations of BP. Abdominal obesity and BP alterations were associated with consumption of bottled soft drinks (p <0.001). In case of food shortages, the coping strategy (loan vs reorganization was asociated with AO (p = 0.019). The sex of the participant was not associated with BMI, although it was with AO (p <0.01).

Conclusions

Socioeconomic status is associated with alterations in BMI. in those participants who had periodic shortages of food ,the strategy employed for dealing with the issue determines the outcomes in terms of anthropometric variables.

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