Impact of short-term change of adiposity on risk of high blood pressure in children: Results from a follow-up study in China

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 16; no. 9; p. e0257144
• Main Authors: Yang, Yi-de, Xie, Ming, Zeng, Yuan, Yuan, Shuqian, Tang, Haokai, Dong, Yanhui, Zou, Zhiyong, Dong, Bin, Wang, Zhenghe, Ye, Xiangli, Hong, Xiuqin, Xiao, Qiu, Ma, Jun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 10.09.2021; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adipose tissue; Age; Biology and Life Sciences; Blood pressure; Body height; Body mass; Body mass index; Body size; Children; Children & youth; Complications and side effects; Conversion; Demographic aspects; Epidemiology; Exercise; Gender; Health aspects; Health risks; Hypertension; Laboratories; Measurement; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Obesity; Overweight; Public health; Reduction; Regression models; Risk; Schools; Weight control; China; Beijing China; Hunan China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257144

This study aimed to examine the impact of short-term adiposity change on risk of high blood pressure (HBP), and to assess the low limit range of body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) reduction proposed to decrease the HBP risk in children. Children were longitudinally surveyed at baseline and after a short-term follow-up. General obesity (GOB) is categorized by age and gender-specific BMI cut-off points, abdominal obesity (AOB) by WHtR. Logistic regression model was used to estimate relations between adiposity change and HBP risk with adjustment of covariates. A total of 28,288 children (median of baseline age:10 years) were involved with follow-up of 6.88±1.20 months. After the follow-up, 9.4% of the children had persistent general obesity (GOB), 2.8% converted from GOB to non-GOB, 0.9% had newly developed GOB. When compared with children remained non-GOB, children with continuous GOB status, newly developed GOB, converting from GOB to non-GOB had 5.03-fold (95%CI: 4.32~5.86), 3.35-fold (95%CI: 1.99~5.65), 2.72-fold (2.03~3.63) HBP risk, respectively. Similar findings were observed for abdominal obesity (AOB). Reduction of 0.21-0.88 kg/m.sup.2 of baseline BMI (0.86-3.59%) or 0.009-0.024 of baseline WHtR (1.66-4.42%) in GOB or AOB children, respectively, was associated with significant decrease in HBP risk. Children with persistent obesity, newly developed obesity, or converting from obese to non-obese had significantly higher HBP risk. For children with GOB or AOB, reduction of <3.6% in BMI or <4.5% in WHtR could decrease the HBP risk.