Background: Hypertension (HT) is one of the greatest non-communicable diseases affecting both sexes in all human populations; and it is a major cause of death and morbidity across the world. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of pre-hypertension, hypertension and investigate the association between blood pressure (BP) and body weight (looking into body mass index (BMI) and body surface area (BSA)). Method: A cross-sectional study of adolescents aged 13–19 years was conducted at three secondary schools consisting of 121 females and 97 males. Data on height; weight; and blood pressure was collected from all participants. BMI and BP percentiles were calculated for each participant. Results: The prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension in males was 28.9% and 10.3% compared to 25.6% and 7.4% in females. The prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension in adolescents who are overweight/obese was 7.3% and 2.7%. A weak positive association between BMI; systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was found (r = 0.254 and 0.216; p-value = 0.001) for the whole population. A significant, moderate correlation was found between BSA on SBP was found (r = 0.407, p-value = 0.001); and a significant, weak correlation between BSA and DBP was found (r = 0.183, p-value = 0.007. In conclusion, the prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension was higher in males as compared to females. Results highlight the need for screening for blood pressure and body weight in adolescents; especially in adolescents who were found to have pre-hypertension as they are at high risk of developing hypertension.

Background: Globally, under-nutrition and hypertension in children has been associated with the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adulthood. The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between under-nutrition and hypertension, furthermore, to determine the risk of developing hypertension due to under-nutrition. Methods: The study comprised of 1701 participants (874 boys and 827 girls) between the ages of 9 and 17 years old. All anthropometric and blood pressure measurements were taken according to standard procedures. Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), body mass index (BMI), upper arm fat area (UFA), total upper arm area (TUAA) and upper arm muscle area (UMA) of Ellisras children were compared with the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III reference population. The linear regression models were used to determine the relationship between under-nutrition with hypertension for unadjusted and then adjusted for age and gender. The logistic regression model was used to determine the risk of under-nutrition on developing hypertension for unadjusted and adjusted for age and gender. Results: There was a positive significant (p < 0.0001) association between all under-nutrition variables (MUAC, BMI, UFA, TUAA and UMA) and systolic blood pressure (SBP; beta ranges between 0.84 and 2.78), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP; beta ranges between 0.3 and 1.08 before adjusting and after adjusting for age and gender (SBP, beta ranges between 0.59 and 2.00 and DBP (beta ranges between 0.24 and 0.80. Conclusion: The prevalence of under-nutrition was high while the prevalence of hypertension was low in this study. The mean under-nutrition variables (BMI, UFA, UMA and MUAC) of Ellisras children were far lower compared to the NHANES III reference population. Hypertension was significantly associated with under-nutrition in this study.