Do high blood pressure and body mass index in childhood predict cardiovascular risk factor levels in young adulthood?
High blood pressure and BMI in childhood independently and additively predict higher cardiovascular risk factor levels in young adulthood, highlighting the need to treat hypertension in overweight children.
The results from this study show that BP and BMI act independently in children to influence future cardiovascular risk factors and the combination of high BP and BMI in childhood has an additive effect in predicting the highest levels of young adult cardiovascular risk. Thus, there should be a focus on treating hypertension in overweight and obese children, in addition to attempting to reduce weight.
Rademacher et al. (Wed,) studied this question.