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. 2021 Dec;23(12):2065-2070.
doi: 10.1111/jch.14381. Epub 2021 Nov 16.

Hypertension in adolescents: The role of obesity and family history

Weiying Zhao  1 , Luxia Mo  1 , Yusheng Pang  1
Affiliations

Hypertension in adolescents: The role of obesity and family history

Weiying Zhao et al. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2021 Dec.

Abstract

We evaluated the combined effect of obesity and family history (FH) on the risk of hypertension in adolescents. We studied 1288 school-aged adolescents aged 16.0 ± 0.5 years (49.0% males) attending the medical examination for enrollment in the city of Nanning, China. Their blood pressure, weight, and height were measured. A questionnaire was administered to both adolescents and their parents to obtain information on the participants' medical history. Multiple logistic regression analysis, according to bodyweight categories and adjusted for age, gender, and body mass index (BMI), was done to determine the association of FH with hypertension. Hypertension was found in 14.1% of adolescents. The prevalence of hypertension was significantly higher in adolescents with obesity and positive FH than their normal weight and negative FH counterparts. For adolescents with normal weight and waist circumstance (WC), those with a positive FH in parents compared to those without had an significantly increased risk for hypertension (odds ratio [OR], 2.15; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.28-3.61, and 1.96; 95% CI 1.16-3.32, respectively). These findings were adjusted for age, gender, and BMI. Our study showed that routine screening for pediatric hypertension should be performed in adolescents who are overweight and obese. Furthermore, parental FH of hypertension played an important role in predicting the hypertension phenotype among adolescents with normal weight.

Keywords: adolescent; family history; obesity; pediatric hypertension.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Distribution of blood pressure status according to obesity and FH status. (A) The prevalence of NBP, Pre‐HBP, and HBP stratified by two weight categories (66.3%, 11.2%, 22.5% vs 81.0%, 7.1%, 11.9%, P < .001); (B) the prevalence of NBP, Pre‐HBP, and HBP stratified by two categories of FH ((74.4%, 7.7%, 17.9% vs 79.4%, 8.1%, 12.5%, P = .045). Abbreviations: OB, overweight /obesity; NW, underweight/normal weight; FH+, Positive FH of EH; FH‐, Negative FH of EH; NBP, normal blood pressure; Pre‐HBP, elevated BP; HBP, hypertension
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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