Blood pressure level profiles among children and adolescents with various types of obesity: study in a large population in Shandong, China.

BACKGROUND: It is well known that obesity is a key determinant of elevated blood pressure (BP) in children and adolescents. The present study compared the BP levels among children and adolescents with various types of obesity in a large population in China.

METHODS: A total of 38,822 students (19,456 boys and 19,366 girls) aged 7-17 years participated in this study. Height, weight, waist circumference (WC), and BP of all subjects were measured, and body mass index (BMI) was calculated. General obesity was assessed by BMI and central obesity by WC. All obese subjects were classified into three types: general obesity only, central obesity only and combined obesity. Relatively high BP status was defined as systolic blood pressure (SBP) and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥ 95th percentile for age and gender.

RESULTS: The overall prevalences of general obesity only, central obesity only and combined obesity were 10.38, 9.61 and 10.77 % for boys and 5.46, 11.41 and 5.44 % for girls, respectively. In both boys and girls, significant differences in BP level and the prevalence of relatively high BP were observed among the three types of obesity (P < 0.05); combined obesity group had the highest BP levels and prevalence of relatively high BP.

CONCLUSION: Children and adolescents with both general and central obesity might have an increased risk of elevated BP than those with isolated types of obesity. Our results suggest that the combined measurement of BMI and WC as a screening tool for high BP among children and adolescents.