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Waist circumference may be accurate measurement of hypertension risk in children

Willig AL. Am J Hypertens. 2010; 23: 904–910.

New data suggest that after adjusting adiposity and body weight measurements for height the strongest predictor of hypertension is waist circumference, and not total fat mass and body weight. In addition, the research showed that black children are at significantly greater risk for developing hypertension than white and Hispanic children.

Researchers studied a multiethnic population of 281 black, white and Hispanic children aged 7 to 12 years.

According to the results, a significantly greater number of black children (16.3%) were marked as candidates for potential hypertension compared with white (5.1%) or Hispanic (2.7%) children.

“The higher rates of elevated blood pressure among otherwise healthy African American children than reported in the general population suggested that clinicians may want to increase BP screenings of these children,” Amanda Willig, PhD,of the department of nutrition sciences at University of Alabama at Birmingham, told Endocrine Today.

Fat mass, BMI, and waist circumference, following adjustments for covariates, were significantly associated with BP and hypertension in the white and black populations (P<.05). However, when these measures were adjusted for height, waist circumference was the only positive predictor of hypertension risk in black and white children. Hispanic children had no measures significantly associated with BP.

“Tracking waist circumference to identify children at risk for high BP may be more beneficial than using BMI percentile growth charts,” Willig said.

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