Background: Cardiovascular diseases risk factors, develop silently during childhood and adolescence with the manifestation of the disease in adulthood. Hence, identification of individual risk factors in childhood is a good method to assess cardiovascular risk level in apparently healthy children. The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors among primary school children in Calabar, Nigeria. Methodology: This was a cross sectional study conducted among 374 randomly selected primary children aged 6 to 12 years (160 males and 214 females) of different socio-economic background. Physical examination was done, anthropometry taken and body mass index (BMI) percentile calculated. Blood pressure was taken using appropriate cuff sizes and non-fasting lipid profile and blood sugar done. Results: Thirty one (8.3%) were overweight, with 3.2% and 5.1% being males and females respectively. Fifteen (4.0%) were obese, with 1.6% males and 2.4% were females. Also, 29(7.8%) of the subjects had waist circumference greater than the 90th percentile. Another 29(7.8%) had elevated systolic blood pressure while 9 (2.4%) had systolic hypertension. Twenty five (6.7%) had hypercholesterolemia, 86(23%) had hypertriglyceridemia. One hundred and twenty one (32.4%) had HDL-cholesterol levels of less than 40mg/dl.. All the participants had normal blood glucose levels. Conclusion: This study revealed that cardiovascular risk factors are present in primary school children. It is important that efforts should be made to evaluate and identify these health indices with the aim of instituting appropriate interventions early in life to prevent the development of cardiovascular diseases later.
