Tracking of elevated systolic blood pressure among lean and overweight adolescents: the Minneapolis Children's Blood Pressure Study.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether elevated blood pressure tracks to a greater degree in overweight than in lean children.


METHODS
Prospective cohort study.


METHODS
We examined 758 adolescents (mean age 13.4 years) who participated in a longitudinal study of blood pressure. The degree of tracking was examined by cross-classification of sex-specific tertiles of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and body mass index determined at baseline and 5 years later. Those children that were in the highest tertile of SBP and body mass index were considered to be 'overweight with elevated blood pressure'. Those that were in the highest tertile of SBP but lowest tertile of body mean index were considered to be 'lean with elevated blood pressure'.


RESULTS
Of those boys that were initially classified as lean with elevated blood pressure, 38% remained so classified compared with 54.6% of those that were initially classified as overweight with elevated blood pressure. Among the girls the respective proportions were 48 and 44.2%. The subjects of each sex who were lean with elevated blood pressure were significantly shorter at baseline than their overweight counterparts, and over the follow-up period experienced a greater mean increase in SBP than their overweight peers. This difference was almost totally explained for the boys once the difference in height change was taken into account. For the girls a difference of 5.9 mmHg remained after covariate adjustment for the change in height.


CONCLUSIONS
These results fail to support the hypothesis that blood pressure tracks differently in obese and in lean adolescents, particularly once differences in sexual maturation are considered.
Donahue
R P
RP
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Miami School of Medicine, Florida 33101.
Prineas
R J
RJ
Gomez
O
O
Hong
C P
CP
D000293:Adolescent; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008910:Minnesota / Q000453:epidemiology; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012741:Sexual Maturation / Q000502:physiology; D013599:Systole / Q000502:physiology