Blood pressure and anthropometric measurements were taken for 231 children
between 11 and 14 years in the Annapurna area of Central Nepal, a popular t
ourist destination. Children from villages on the tourist trail, whose life
styles were generally more modernised, were compared with children from nea
rby villages off the tourist trail. Indications of greater modernisation on
the trail included the findings that fathers of children living on the tra
il were less likely to work as farmers than fathers of those off the trail
(P = 0.003), and children living on the trail were much more likely to have
seen television (P < 0.001). Children on the tourist trail were taller and
heavier (P < 0.001), and had higher body mass indices (P = 0.003) and bice
ps skinfolds (P = 0.005). They also had higher diastolic blood pressure tha
n children living off the trail (P = 0.02). The differences in weight appea
red to account for the effect of living on the trail on diastolic blood pre
ssure, since when weight was added to the model it showed a significant ass
ociation with diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.02) and the effect of locatio
n became nonsignificant. For the biceps skinfold and systolic blood pressur
e, there was a significant sex difference in the effect of living on the tr
ail (P = 0.04 and P = 0.05 respectively), such that; among girls there were
greater increases associated with living on the trail than there were amon
g boys. The findings suggest that lifestyle changes linked to the developme
nt of tourism in Nepal are associated from an early age with potentially de
leterious changes in cardiovascular characteristics and demonstrate that su
ch socioeconomic changes can have quite local effects. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss,
Inc.