Blood pressure effects of adiposity in non-overweight children aged 6–17 years

Abstract

Background: Obesity is a well-established risk factor of elevated blood pressure; however, the relationships between normal weight status and the risk of hypertension and pre-hypertension are not clear.

Aim: The aim of this study is to describe the blood pressure effects of adiposity in non-overweight children.

Methods and results: In total, 588 097 non-overweight children aged 6–17 years were included from the National Surveys on Students’ Constitution and Health. A non-linear relationship was found between age- and gender-standardised body mass index (BMI) z-score and pre-hypertension and hypertension, respectively. The odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals [ORs (95% CIs)] of pre-hypertension were 0.61 (0.59–0.63), 0.67 (0.65–0.68), 0.83 (0.83–0.84), 1.00 (reference), 1.13 (1.12–1.14), 1.18 (1.16–1.20) and 1.20 (1.18–1.22) for BMI z-scores of −1.2, −1.0, −0.5, 0 (reference), 0.5, 0.7 and 0.8, respectively. The ORs (95% CIs) of hypertension were 0.56 (0.54–0.58), 0.62 (0.61–0.64), 0.81 (0.80–0.82), 1.00 (reference), 1.17 (1.16–1.18), 1.23 (1.22–1.5) and 1.27 (1.24–1.29) for BMI z-scores of −1.2, −1.0, −0.5, 0 (reference), 0.5, 0.7 and 0.8, respectively. The above-mentioned associations were consistent in sub-group analysis by age, gender and height.

Conclusions: Non-linear relationships of BMI z-scores with pre-hypertension and hypertension were found in non-overweight children. Interventions to control blood pressure are also important in non-overweight children.

Keywords:

• Body mass index
• pre-hypertension
• hypertension
• non-overweight children

Acknowledgements

We thank all the team members and all participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.