En escolares de México la presión arterial se relacionó con la masa corporal, pero no con el crecimiento pre- y post-natal

objectives: 1) to know the prevalence of malnourishment and high values of arterial blood pressure in schoolchildren of xochimilco county, mexico. 2) to analyze the association of pre and postnatal growth and the body mass with high values of blood pressure. material and methods: it is a cross-sectional, observational and analytic study. during the elective year 2003-2004, 972 students of xochimilco county was studied. the independent variables was age, sex, intrauterine and infant growth, body mass, body fat and socioeconomic status. it was assessed the relationship between the independent variables and the values of blood pressure by a logistic regression model. results: the indicators of intrauterine (birth weight and length) and infantile (head circumference and height for-age index) growth were not associated with the high levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure. after adjusted other variables, women had more risk to show high levels of systolic blood pressure, as the overweight children had more risk to show high blood pressure systolic and diastolic levels. conclusions: in the students the overweight and obesity increase the probability to show high blood pressure values therefore it is necessary to implement programs to promote an adequate nutritional status. in this study was not observed empiric support to the barker hypothesis according to the intrauterine and infantile growth could have negative effects in the blood pressure levels.