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Comparison of adiposity measures in the identification of children with elevated blood pressure in Guangzhou, China

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 29, pages 732–736 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

To differentiate the screening potential of waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and body mass index (BMI) for the presence of elevated blood pressure (BP) in Chinese children. A total of 2799 boys and 2672 girls aged 6–10 years participated in this cross-sectional study. Weight, height, WC and hip circumference were measured, and WHR, WHtR and BMI were calculated. Elevated BP was defined as systolic BP and/or diastolic BP ⩾95th percentile for age and gender. Both linear and logistic regression showed that WC had the strongest associations with BP values or risk of elevated BP, and the association was more substantial in boys than in girls. The area under receiver operating curves for the presence of elevated BP were highest for WC (0.770, 95% confidence interval: 0.754–0.785) in boys. In girls, WC, BMI and WHtR showed similar discriminatory capacity for elevated BP and were slightly higher than that of WHR. The optimal cutoff values of WC were 71.1th percentile for boys and 83.5th percentile for girls. WC was a simple and sensitive measure in the identification of elevated BP regardless of sex in children in Guangzhou, China.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by special research grant for non-profit public service of the Ministry of Health of China (Grant no. 201202010). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. We thank Guangzhou Health Care Center of Middle and Primary Schools for helping us to collect anthropometric data. We also appreciate the students who participated in the surveys for their cooperation and our Master students for their data input.

Author Contributions

JJ, J-cM and JM made substantial contributions to conception and design. YJ and W-hY acquired the data. J-jL and JJ performed the analysis and interpretation of data and were involved in drafting the manuscript. Y-jC and JJ gave the final approval of the version to be published. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Maternity and Child Health Care, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    J-j Liang, Y-j Chen, Y Jin, W-h Yang & J Jing

  2. Guangzhou Health Care Center of Middle and Primary Schools, Guangzhou, China

    J-c Mai

  3. Institute of Child and Adolescent Health, Public Health of Peking University, Beijing, China

    J Ma

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Correspondence to J Jing.

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Liang, Jj., Chen, Yj., Jin, Y. et al. Comparison of adiposity measures in the identification of children with elevated blood pressure in Guangzhou, China. J Hum Hypertens 29, 732–736 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2015.16

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