Dietary calcium intake is inversely associated with blood pressure in Brazilian children

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the dietary calcium intake and its association with blood pressure in childhood. It is a cross-sectional study with a sample of 347 Brazilian children aged 8 and 9 years. We evaluated calcium intake through three dietary records. Blood pressure was measured following the recommendations of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology. The intake of calcium was below recommendations for almost all children (96.3%). There was statistically significant difference in the means of systolic (p = .041) and diastolic (p = .047) blood pressure in the tertiles of calcium intake. After adjustment of regression model, each tertile of calcium intake showed that the systolic and diastolic blood pressure was reduced in 1.53 (95% confidence interval: −2.84 to −0.21) and 1.83 mmHg (95% confidence interval: −3.49 to −0.19), respectively. Our results showed an inverse association between dietary calcium intake and blood pressure in childhood.

Keywords:

• Calcium
• dietary intake
• children
• blood pressure

Acknowledgements

Authors thank the staff from the Department of Health at Federal University of Viçosa for the collaboration to the data collection.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.