| Summary: | A quantitative, descriptive relational and cross-sectional study was carried out from January to July 2007. The universe was formed by a total of 1 555 adolescents between 14 and 18 years of age, treated at the Polyclinic of the Ernesto Che Guevara School Center in Santa Clara City. The sample was formed by all the adolescents of the age group studied (between 14 and 18 years of age), who belong to three schools in the center. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in adolescents of this age group; and to identify a possible association of these factors with arterial hypertension in them. An active search for arterial hypertension was carried out, as well as a sustained weight test to determine vascular reactivity. The personal and family antecedents of risk were recorded in the medical history, as well as the anthropometric variables related to the risk. The diagnosis of arterial hypertension was carried out according to the criteria of the II Task Force; which are established in a chart for the pediatric age. The main results show that there is a high intake of fat (53.76%), mainly in the female sex; 68 percent of the students do not carry out physical exercises systematically, and the type of physical exercise is not always considered completely beneficial. The female sex presented a mean waist/hip index of 0.809 and the percentile 90 of 0.87. The male sex behaved in a similar way with a mean of 0.84 and a percentile 90 of 0.90. According to the sustained weight test, 38.8 percent of the adolescents were considered vascular hyper-reactive individuals. Arterial hypertension was found in 5.8 percent of the adolescents, and 29.2 percent were pre-hypertensive. It was concluded that the adolescent population studied presented important indicators of risk such as: a high incidence of abdominal obesity and vascular hyper-reactivity, little practice of physical exercises and abundant intake of fat. The prevalence of different degrees of arterial hypertension was higher than in other similar studies, and it was significantly and directly correlated with the indicators of abdominal obesity.
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