Abstract:
Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD)
prevalence in Kenya is rising. Overweight, pre-
hypertension and physical inactivity at younger
ages is contributory. These risk factors are
inadequately documented among Kenyan children
and adolescents, hampering CVD prevention.
Methods: this cross-sectional study randomly
sampled 384 participants from Eldoret, Kenya.
After ethical considerations, physical activity was
assessed. Body mass index (BMI), Waist-Hip-Ratio
(WHR) and Waist-Height-Ratio (WHtR) were
determined, and blood pressure (BP) was
measured. Results: participants were 14.6±2.7
years, and 62.6% were female. Eight percent had
BMI ≥25.0 kg/m². Of these, 87% were in secondary
schools. Using SBP, 27.9% had CVD risk (42.5% and
20% for males and females ≥13 years and 26.5%
and 27% for those <13 years, respectively). For
DBP, 12.8% had elevated-to-hypertensive BP
(13.2% and 8.3% for males and females ≥13 years
and 11.8% and 25.4% for those <13 years,
respectively). Combining SBP and DBP, 8.1%,
mostly males, had elevated-to-hypertensive BP.
Using respective WHR cutoffs of 0.90 and 0.85,
31% (boys) and 15.6% (girls) were at CVD risk. For
WHtR, 39.6% of boys were >0.463 cut-off
(0.493±0.02) against 32.4% for girls >0.469 cut-off
(0.517±0.05). Of these, 52.6% (boys) and 69.7%
(girls) were in secondary schools. Overall, 45% of
participants were sports-inactive and 77.2% did
minimal physical activities. Conclusion: among
school-going children and adolescents in Eldoret,
Kenya, the prevalence of CVD risk factors was high,
especially among boys and in high schools. Large
proportions had elevated BP, BMI, WHR and
WHtR, and, further, were sedentary, posing a high
CVD risk. Lifestyle interventions to mitigate this are
urgently needed.