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Percentage of free fat mass is associated with elevated blood pressure in healthy Chinese children

Hypertension Research volume 42, pages 95–104 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Previous studies have reported that a high free fat mass (FFM) was associated with elevated blood pressure in children. However, the observed relationship could be confounded by body weight. Thus, we performed cross-sectional analyses to understand the differences between the percentage of free fat mass (FFM%) and FFM in relation to blood pressure in healthy Chinese children. A total number of 2671 (1264 girls; aged 6–14 years) healthy Chinese children was recruited in 2014 (baseline). We further prospectively examined whether these indices predicted hypertension risk during the 2 years of follow-up (2014–2016) among 2094 participants who were free of hypertension at the baseline. Blood pressure was repeatedly measured in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Hypertension was defined as either high systolic blood pressure and/or high diastolic blood pressure (≥age- and sex-specific 95th percentile for Chinese children). The baseline FFM was assessed by bio-impedance analysis, and FFM% was calculated as FFM divided by the body weight. A high FFM was associated with a high baseline blood pressure and high hypertension risk after adjustment for potential confounders (all p < 0.001). By contrast, a high FFM% was associated with a low baseline blood pressure and low hypertension risk in the fully adjusted model (all p < 0.001). Each one-percent increment of FFM% was associated with a 9% lower risk of developing hypertension (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.91; 95% confidence interval: 0.89, 0.94). A high FFM% was associated with a low blood pressure and low hypertension risk in healthy Chinese children.

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by grants from Pu Dong Medical Bureau (PW2016D-05).

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Nutrition, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Renying Xu, Xiaomin Zhang, Yiquan Zhou & Yanping Wan

  2. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Shanghai, China

    Renying Xu & Yanping Wan

  3. Department of Nutritional Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Xiang Gao

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  1. Renying Xu
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  2. Xiaomin Zhang
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  4. Yanping Wan
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Correspondence to Yanping Wan or Xiang Gao.

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Xu, R., Zhang, X., Zhou, Y. et al. Percentage of free fat mass is associated with elevated blood pressure in healthy Chinese children. Hypertens Res 42, 95–104 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41440-018-0129-y

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Key words

  • free fat mass (FFM)
  • percentage of free fat mass (FFM%)
  • hypertension
  • children

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