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Children who appeared or remained overweight or obese predict a higher follow-up blood pressure and higher risk of hypertension: a 6-year longitudinal study in Yantai, China

Hypertension Research volume 46, pages 1840–1849 (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

Few longitudinal studies have examined the effect of weight status change on blood pressure change over time and incidence of hypertension among Chinese children. The longitudinal study enrolled 17,702 Chinese children aged 7 years in Yantai in 2014 as baseline, with a continuous 5 years of follow-up to 2019. Generalized estimating equation model was fitted to examine the main and interaction effects of weight status change and time with blood pressure and the incidence of hypertension. Compared with the participants who remained normal weight, the participants who remained overweight or obese had higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) (β = 2.89, p < 0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (β = 1.79, p < 0.001). Significant interactions were identified between weight status change and time with SBP (χ2interaction = 697.77, p < 0.001) and DBP (χ2interaction = 270.49, p < 0.001). The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of hypertension were 1.70 (1.59–1.82) for participants who appeared overweight or obese, 2.26 (2.14–2.40) for participants who remained overweight or obese, compared with the participants who remained normal weight. Those who switched from overweight or obesity to normal weight had almost the same risk of developing hypertension (OR = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.26) as children who remained normal weight. Children who appeared or remained overweight or obese predict a higher follow-up blood pressure and higher risk of hypertension, whereas losing weight could reduce blood pressure and the risk of hypertension.

Children who appeared or remained overweight or obese predict a higher follow-up blood pressure and higher risk of hypertension, whereas losing weight could reduce blood pressure and the risk of hypertension

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the efforts of the research team members and the participating students, teachers, parents, as well as the doctors and nurses involved in this study for anthropometric measurement and data collection.

Funding

This study was supported by Key Laboratory for Robot & Intelligent Technology of Shandong Province (Shandong University of Science and Technology) and a grant from China National Foundation of Natural Science (82171570).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Medical College of Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Yixin Cui, Fan Zhang, Hao Wang, Dongfeng Zhang & Xiaoli Shen

  2. Department of Anesthetized One, Jiaozhou People’s Hospital of Qingdao, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China

    Jianyan Wu

  3. Institute of Infectious Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Jinan, Shandong Province, China

    Yufang Xing

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  1. Yixin Cui
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  3. Hao Wang
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Contributions

YC: conceptualization, methodology, software, data curation, writing-original draft. FZ: data curation, supervision. HW: software, supervision. JW: methodology, supervision. DZ: investigation, supervision. YX: resources, writing-review & editing. XS: validation, writing-review & editing. The first listed made the greatest contribution to the paper.

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Correspondence to Yufang Xing or Xiaoli Shen.

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Cui, Y., Zhang, F., Wang, H. et al. Children who appeared or remained overweight or obese predict a higher follow-up blood pressure and higher risk of hypertension: a 6-year longitudinal study in Yantai, China. Hypertens Res 46, 1840–1849 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41440-023-01286-y

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