Diet intervention on obese children with hypertension in China

Abstract

Background: Obesity has made obesity-related diseases a worldwide problem. This study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of diet-oriented intervention on obese children with hypertension in China and to determine the relationship between anthropometric indexes and hypertension.

Methods: A total of 469 obese children, aged 6 to 18 years, were evaluated between January 2001 and December 2005; 184 of them were diagnosed with hypertension. Hypertensive children were provided with individual diet-oriented intervention for more than 6 months. Physical exercises were recommended for obese children at least 30 minutes per day. Height, body weight, waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure were taken for each subject before and after intervention.

Results: Of the 184 children enrolled, 139 (75.5%; 86 boys) completed the study. Weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and hip circumference all decreased after a 6-month intervention, despite a 2.1 cm increase in height. Systolic and diastolic pressures decreased by 16.6 and 13.3 mmHg compared with baseline levels. Of the 139 children, 103 (74.1%) who had blood pressure in the normal range (<90th percentile for age and sex) were taken as a response group. The other 36 children who remained hypertensive showed no obvious differences in anthropometric measurements and were taken as a non-response group. Weight, BMI, BMI%, waist circumference, hip circumference and blood pressure in the 139 children showed significant differences after the intervention compared with baseline values. Weight, BMI, BMI%, waist circumference, and hip circumference were positively correlated with both systolic and diastolic blood pressures; they were correlated more strongly with systolic pressure than with diastolic pressure.

Conclusions: Diet-oriented intervention can decrease blood pressure in most obese children with hypertension. Weight, height, BMI, BMI%, waist circumference, and hip circumference are closely associated with blood pressure.