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Adiposity indicators and blood pressure in children: nothing beyond body mass index?

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 29, pages 211–212 (2015)Cite this article

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Obesity is a major risk factor for elevated blood pressure in children.1, 2, 3, 4 For instance, in a school-based study of 5207 children aged 10–12 years, the prevalence of hypertension, which is sustained elevated blood pressure over several visits, was 1.5%, 3.9% and 17.5% in normal weight, overweight and obese children, respectively.4 High body mass index (BMI) is commonly used to define overweight and obesity. However, because BMI is merely a proxy for adiposity, there is a longstanding debate about its performance to predict elevated blood pressure (or any other health conditions associated with adiposity) and whether other adiposity indicators, such as waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio or hip circumference, should not be preferred.5,6

The study by Dong et al.7 in the current issue of the Journal of Human Hypertension offers a high quality and enlightening contribution to this debate.7 Indeed, the authors assessed the association between different adiposity indicators and elevated blood pressure in a huge population-based study of 99 366 participants aged 7–17 years from China. The adiposity indicators evaluated were weight, BMI, waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, hip circumference, body adiposity index (a construct based on hip circumference and height), waist-to-hip ratio and skinfold thickness, all converted into z-scores.

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  1. Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (IUMSP), Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland

    A Chiolero

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Chiolero, A. Adiposity indicators and blood pressure in children: nothing beyond body mass index?. J Hum Hypertens 29, 211–212 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2014.96

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