Is there a relationship between anxiety disorders and cardiovascular risk factors and symptoms in children and adolescents?
Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents are significantly correlated with cardiovascular symptoms like palpitations and chest pain, and may be predicted by fasting blood sugar and LDL levels.
Objective: Anxiety is an unpleasant feeling characterized by symptoms of tachycardia, sweating, and stress. The exact relationship between anxiety and cardiovascular disorder is not well distinguished. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between anxiety disorders and anthropometric indices and risk factors, including fasting blood sugar (FBS), hyperlipidemia, and hypertension, according to the results, FBS low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and symptoms of cardiovascular disorder in children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years. Method: In this community-based study, multistage cluster sampling method was used. We randomly selected 1174 children and adolescents who referred to Afshar hospital in Yazd, then, 167 blocks were randomly collected by each cluster head. Each cluster consisted of 6 cases, including three cases of each gender in different age groups (6-9, 10- 14, and 15-18 years). The clinical psychologists instructed the participants to complete the Persian version of Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia - Present and Lifetime version (K-SADS-PL). In addition, cardiovascular risk factors were determined for participants and demographic data were obtained from the participants. Results: A total of 1035 children and adolescents participated in this study. The results showed that 228 of the participants (22.2%) suffered from anxiety disorder. There was an indirect significant correlation between anxiety disorder and the symptoms of heart palpitation, shortness of breath, and chest pain. There was no statistically significant relationship between the different types of anxiety disorders and FBS, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension. According to the results, FBS and LDL are a predictor for anxiety disorders. Conclusion: There was a statistically significant association between anxiety in children and adolescents and some risk factors of cardiovascular disorder. Also, this study introduces some cardiovascular predictors of anxiety. However, further studies are needed in this regard.
Ahmadi et al. (2021) studied this question.