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Review
. 2001 Nov-Dec;3(6):362-7.
doi: 10.1111/j.1524-6175.2001.00492.x.

Obesity, body fat distribution, and ambulatory blood pressure in children and adolescents

E Lurbe  1 , V Alvarez, J Redon
Affiliations
Review

Obesity, body fat distribution, and ambulatory blood pressure in children and adolescents

E Lurbe et al. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2001 Nov-Dec.

Abstract

Obesity is a common disease with an ever-increasing prevalence and usually with late-onset consequences. If acquired during childhood, it tracks into adult life to some extent, and since the relationship between obesity and hypertension is well established in adults, obese children appear to be at particularly high risk of becoming hypertensive adults. In the authors' study, obese children seemed to have significantly higher casual and ambulatory blood pressure than nonobese children, except for nighttime diastolic blood pressure. The health effects of obesity may depend on the anatomic distribution of body fat, which in turn may be a better indicator of endocrinologic imbalance, environmental stress, or genetic factors than is fatness per se. Subjects with a higher waist-to-hip ratio or a larger waist, as an estimate of central obesity, tend to have higher blood pressure values even during childhood. Prevention of the onset of obesity in early life may be important to reducing the risk of coronary heart disease in later life.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Box plot of casual blood pressure (BP) measurement and ambulatory monitoring of 24‐hour, daytime, and nighttime systolic BP (panel A) and diastolic BP (panel B) in obese (n=85, shaded boxes) and nonobese (n=88, filled boxes) children and adolescents. Casual systolic and diastolic BP were significantly higher in obese than in nonobese subjects (p<0.01 and p<0.05, respectively). Systolic BP over 24 hours was higher in obese than in nonobese children (p<0.01), and the magnitude of the differences was similar during the daytime (p<0.01) and nighttime periods (p<0.05). In contrast, diastolic BP did not significantly differ during the nighttime period, and only small differences were observed during the day (p<0.05).
Figure 1
Figure 1
Regression lines and the 95% confidence interval between the average 24‐hour systolic blood pressure (BP) and several anthropometric parameters: waist measurement, weight, body mass index (BMI), and height. Bps tend to be higher with increased weight, waist, and height measurements. r=Pearson correlation coefficient
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