Weight status change from childhood to early adulthood and the risk of adult hypertension

OBJECTIVE: Overweight/obesity in childhood is suggested to increase risk of hypertension later in life. However, few studies have assessed the effect of trajectories of weight status from childhood to adulthood on adult hypertension. The present study aimed to assess the relationship between weight status change from childhood to early adulthood and adult hypertension in the Chinese population. METHODS: Data were from the China Health and Nutrition Survey cohort study including 2095 participants who had at least one measurement of BMI and blood pressure (BP) in childhood (6-17 years) and in early adulthood (aged 18-37 years) between 1991 and 2011. Poisson regression model was used to assess the effect of weight status change from childhood to early adulthood on risk of adult hypertension. RESULTS: There were 235 participants (11.2%) with high BP in childhood and 114 participants (5.4%) with hypertension in early adulthood after a median follow-up of 11.0 years. Compared with normal weight in both childhood and early adulthood (n = 1604), relative risk (RR) of adult hypertension was 3.79 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.94-7.41] for overweight/obesity in both childhood and early adulthood (n = 79), and 3.75 (95% CI = 2.49-5.64) for normal weight in childhood but overweight/obesity in early adulthood (n = 301). In contrast, participants who were overweight/obese as children but had normal weight as adults (n = 111) had no increased risk of adult hypertension (RR = 1.05, 95% CI = 0.33-3.40). CONCLUSION: Overweight/obesity in early adulthood was associated with adult hypertension irrespective of weight status in childhood. In contrast, the risk of adult hypertension could be reversed if overweight/obese children become normal weight adults.