Key result
Higher BMI and waist circumference correlate most strongly with elevated systolic blood pressure in youth.
Why the study?
The association between average blood pressure levels in children and adolescents and their nutritional and socioeconomic status required evaluation.
Are anthropometric indicators of nutritional state (BMI, waist circumference, and body fat percentage) and socioeconomic status associated with blood pressure levels in children and adolescents?
Cross-Sectional (n=706)
No
Are anthropometric indicators of nutritional state (BMI, waist circumference, and body fat percentage) and socioeconomic status associated with blood pressure levels in children and adolescents?
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Combined measurement of BMI and waist circumference provides a simple, noninvasive, and low-cost method to identify children and adolescents at elevated risk for high blood pressure.
The objective of this work was to evaluate the association between the average levels of blood pressure of 706 children in Porto Alegre with their nutritional state--body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, waist circumference--and with their social-economic state. A prevalence of 12.3% (n=87) of high blood pressure was found. According to the BMI, 11% of the sample was obese. 47.7% belonged to the social class with an income less than two monthly minimum salaries. All of the correlations of the SBP (systolic blood pressure) and DBP (diastolic blood pressure) with variables in the nutritional state showed to be significant (p < 0.001). What ended up having a stronger association was the BMI and waist circumference with SBP (R = 0.27). This study made it possible to notice that the anthropometric indicator that best is related to the existence of high BP is the BMI along with the waist circumference. This seems to be an easy method that is noninvasive and of low cost to detect the risk of high BP in children and adolescents.
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Silva et al. (2026) conducted a cross-sectional in Blood pressure and obesity in children and adolescents (n=706). Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, body fat percentage, and socioeconomic status was evaluated on Association of BMI and waist circumference with systolic blood pressure (SBP) (R=0.27 (multiple linear regression); Pearson r=0.45 for BMI and r=0.41 for waist circumference, p=<0.001). Body mass index and waist circumference showed the strongest positive association with systolic blood pressure (R=0.27, p<0.001) among children and adolescents, with a 12.3% prevalence of high BP.
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