Incidence of Arterial Hypertension is Associated with Adiposity in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Background: The increase of hypertension in children and adolescents has attracted the attention of the scientific community largely due to its association with the obesity epidemic. Objectives: To describe the incidence of hypertension and its relationship with the cardiometabolic and genetic profile in children and adolescents from a city in southern Brazil in a three-year period. Methods: This longitudinal study followed 469 children and adolescents, aged 7-17 years old (43.1% boys), assessed at two-time points. We evaluated systolic and diastolic blood pressures (SBP and DBP), waist circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage (%BF), lipid profile, glucose, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and rs9939609 Polymorphism (FTO). Cumulative incidence of hypertension was calculated, and multinomial logistic regression was conducted. The statistical significance was established as p < 0.05. Results: After three years, the incidence of hypertension was 11.5%. Overweight or obese individuals were more likely to become borderline hypertensive (overweight OR: 3.22, 95% CI: 1.08-9.55; obesity OR: 4.05, 95% CI: 1.68-9.75), and obese individuals were more likely to become hypertensive (obesity OR: 4.84, 95% CI: 1.57-14.95). High-risk WC and %BF values were associated with hypertension development (OR: 3.41, 95% CI: 1.26-9.19; OR: 2.49, 95% CI: 1.08-5.75, respectively). Conclusions: We found a higher incidence of hypertension in children and adolescents as compared with previous studies. Individuals with higher values of BMI, WC and %BF at baseline were more likely to develop hypertension, suggesting the importance of adiposity in the development of hypertension even in such a young population.