Study On The Relationship Of Abdominal Obesity Markers And Blood Pressure For 5- To 17-Year-Old Children And Adolescents

Objective: To investigate the relationships between waist circumference(WC),waist circumference to height ratio(WHtR),waist to hip ratio(WHR) and blood pressure.Methods: A school based, cross-sectional study was conducted in the urban Chongqing in 2003 and 2005.A total 7326(3603 boys) Han students aged 5 to 17 years were recruited from 15 primary schools and 9 secondary schools. Weight,height,WC,and hip circumference were measured according to the international criteria and blood pressure was measured with the mercury sphygmomanometer. The body mass index(BMI),WHtR and WHR were calculated. The relations between blood pressure and different anthropometric variables in both genders were investigated in partial correlation analysis and stepwise multiple regression analysis.Results: The prevalence of abnormal blood pressure was 3.86% (4.61% for boys, 3.06% for girls).WC and WHtR were positively related with systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure in both sexes and WC was the most relevant, whereas the relationships with WHR were less consistent. The differences of WC and WHtR between normal groups and abnormal groups(WC≥90th,WHtR≥0.5, WHR≥0.85 for girls, WHR≥0.90 for boys) were more significant than that of WHR. Using stepwise multiple regression analysis to explain the variance of blood pressure, age,WC,WHtR,WHR were influence factors of systolic and diastolic blood pressure. WC was the most significant predictor for all variables both for boys and girls, whereas WHR had the lowest predictive value for the detection of blood pressure. Adjusted odds ratios for predicting pathological values of blood pressure were significant higher for the highest WHtR and WC groups (6～7times). Smoothed percentile values for the 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th,75th, 90th, and 95th percentiles are presented for boys and girls. WC increases with age in boys and girls, and boys have higher values than girls at nearly every age-specific percentile.Conclusion: WC and WHtR are independently related to blood pressure level in children and adolescents and WC is the best predictor of the risk of hypertension, followed by WHtR, WHR is the last.