A controlled study of eight months of physical training and reduction of blood pressure in children: the Odense schoolchild study

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effect of physical training on physical fitness and blood pressure in children aged 9-11 years.

Design: Prospective randomised controlled intervention study of a sample of children drawn from a population survey of coronary risk factors in children.

Setting: Odense, Denmark.

Subjects: 69 children with mean blood pressure greater than or equal to 95th centile (hypertensive group) and 68 with mean blood pressure less than 95th centile (normotensive group), randomly selected from a population of 1369 children.

Intervention: 67 children were randomised to receive three extra lessons a week of an ordinary school physical education programme for eight months.

Main outcome measures: Physical fitness assessed by calculation of maximum oxygen uptake and blood pressure recorded by one unblinded observer.

Results: After three months neither blood pressure nor physical fitness had changed significantly. After adjustment for values in weight, height, heart rate, and the variable in question before training physical fitness rose significantly at the end of eight months' training, by 3.7 mlO2/kg/min (95% confidence interval 2.2 to 5.3) in the normotensive training subgroup and by 2.1 mlO2/kg/min (0.1 to 4.2) in the hypertensive training subgroup compared with that in the controls. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures in the training subgroups fell significantly by 6.5 mm Hg (3.2 to 9.9) and 4.1 mm Hg (1.7 to 6.6) respectively in the normotensive group and by 4.9 mm Hg (0.7 to 9.2) and 3.8 mm Hg (0.9 to 6.6) respectively in the hypertensive group.

Conclusions: Physical training lowers blood pressure and improves physical fitness in children and might have implications for an important non-pharmacological approach to primary prevention of essential hypertension.