Obese children face 6 times more risk of high blood pressure

Specialists at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress,presented  a study, that warns children who are obese are up to six times more at risk of high blood pressure- an adult condition commonly linked to heart disease.

The study conducted from Prevention Education Program (PEP) Family Heart Study in Germany, showed that compared with normal weight children and adolescents, the risk of prehypertension was significantly higher in youths with an elevated body mass index (BMI). The risk was 1.6 fold higher in overweight and 2.4 fold higher in obese boys, and 1.8 fold higher in overweight and 3.3 fold higher in obese girls.

Professor Peter Schwandt from Germany, said that the prevalence of hypertension and obesity in children and adolescents was continuing to rise in most high and middle-income countries because adiposity is considered a driving force for cardiovascular disease, they futher examined whether elevated blood pressure was associated with body fat distribution in young people.

Schwandt stated, they found that obese boys had a nearly six fold increased risk of hypertension compared to normal weight boys and in obese girls the risk was more than four times greater than their normal weight counterparts.

Schwandt concluded that general and abdominal adiposity, estimated using simple and inexpensive methods, were already significantly associated with prehypertension and hypertension in children and adolescents and this was of great importance because of the ongoing rise in the prevalence of hypertension and obesity in young people and the tracking of childhood overweight into adulthood.