Cross-sectional, school-based study of 14-19 year olds showed that raised blood pressure was associated with obesity and abdominal obesity

Associations Between Single-Child Status and Metabolic Syndrome in Children and Adolescents in China

Objective: To evaluate the associations between single-child status and metabolic syndrome (MS) and to identify the highest risk group of MS among single children. Methods: Differences in participants' characteristics by sex were examined by Student's t-test for continuous variables and Pearson's chi-squared test for categorical variables. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for MS and its components according to the single-child status. Radar maps were used to compare the composition of different components in MS. Results: In total, 11,784 (5,880 boys) children and adolescents were included in this study, with a mean age of (11.3 ± 3.1) years. MS was observed in 7.1% of participants, with a higher prevalence in boys (8.2%) than girls (5.9%) (P < 0.05). The prevalence of MS, elevated blood pressure and abdominal obesity in single children were higher than that in children with siblings, particularly in boys (P < 0.001). Elevated risk of abdominal obesity was observed in single children [boys (1.56, 95% CI: 1.31, 1.85), girls (1.40, 95% CI: 1.19, 1.63)], however, increased ORs of elevated blood pressure and metabolic syndrome were observed in single-child boys only (1.19, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.40 and 1.76, 95% CI: 1.34, 2.31, respectively). Results showed that a statistically significant association between single child status and MS was mainly observed in urban boys (2.04, 95% CI: 1.33, 3.12) and rural boys (1.50, 95% CI: 1.05, 2.15), but not in girls. Among all the combinations of MS, two combinations were significantly associated with the single-child status, including the combination of elevated blood pressure, abdominal and low HDL-C (1.45, 1.04, 2.04) and the combination of elevated blood pressure, abdominal obesity, low HDL-C and hypertriglyceridemia (2.04, 1.40, 3.06) (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The present study found that single children and adolescents had a higher risk of MS, elevated blood pressure and abdominal obesity. The associations were stronger in urban boys. Further attention should be directed to the prevention and control strategies targeting the high-risk population of MS.

Exposure to Chinese Famine in the Early Life, Adulthood Obesity Patterns, and the Incidence of Hypertension: A 22-Year Cohort Study

INTRODUCTION

Little is known regarding the joint associations of famine exposure and obesity patterns with the incidence of hypertension.

METHODS

We defined famine exposure cohorts as follows: nonexposure (born between 1962 and 1965), fetal life exposure (born between 1959 and 1961), early childhood exposure (born between 1956 and 1958), midchildhood exposure (born between 1953 and 1955), and late childhood exposure (born between 1949 and 1952). Obesity patterns were defined as follows: G-/A-: subjects without neither general obesity nor abdominal obesity; G+/A- or G-/A+: subjects with either general obesity or abdominal obesity; G+/A+: subjects with both general obesity and abdominal obesity. Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure ≥140 mm Hg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mm Hg or current treatment with antihypertensive medications.

RESULTS

There were 5,235 individuals participating in this study. In the subjects with general or abdominal obesity, famine exposure was associated with a lower risk of hypertension. In males with G-/A-, famine exposures in the midchildhood (p = 0.048; HR: 0.700; HR 95% CI: 0.491-0.998) and late childhood (p = 0.002; HR: 0.560; HR 95% CI: 0.374-0.840) were associated with a lower incidence of hypertension.

CONCLUSION

The coexistence of famine exposure and obesity patterns was associated with the incidence of hypertension.

Prevalence of Hypertension and Its Association with Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference Among Adolescents in Turkey: A Cross-Sectional Study

PURPOSE

This study examined the prevalence of hypertension in adolescents, with the aim of determining a link between blood pressure and body composition measurements.

DESIGN AND METHODS

This cross-sectional study included adolescents aged 14-19 years attending schools. Their body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) measurements were recorded. Blood pressure (BP) was taken three or more times, with an average systolic BP and/or diastolic BP ≥ the 95th percentile was regarded as hypertension.

RESULTS

The prevalence rates of pre-hypertension and hypertension were 11.2% and 14.8%, respectively. Obese and overweight adolescents had a higher prevalence of hypertension compared with those of normal weight (41.6% and 15.5% versus 6.2%, respectively). Following adjustment for BMI status and WC, significant correlations were observed between overweight/obesity and hypertension. After adjusting for BMI status and WC, abdominal obesity was not associated with hypertension.

CONCLUSIONS

A comparatively high prevalence of hypertension was found among the adolescents. Obesity and overweight were highly correlated with hypertension.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

School nurses and doctors must describe and address high or raised blood pressure levels in children and adolescents. Because of the high prevalence of hypertension in the obese and overweight adolescents, this study emphasizes the need for the early prevention and control of obesity and hypertension among children.

The Prediction of Human Abdominal Adiposity Based on the Combination of a Particle Swarm Algorithm and Support Vector Machine

Background: Abdominal adiposity is an important risk factor of chronic cardiovascular diseases, thus the prediction of abdominal adiposity and obesity can reduce the risks of contracting such diseases. However, the current prediction models display low accuracy and high sample size dependence. The purpose of this study is to put forward a new prediction method based on an improved support vector machine (SVM) to solve these problems. Methods: A total of 200 individuals participated in this study and were further divided into a modeling group and a test group. Their physiological parameters (height, weight, age, the four parameters of abdominal impedance and body fat mass) were measured using the body composition tester (the universal INBODY measurement device) based on BIA. Intelligent algorithms were used in the modeling group to build predictive models and the test group was used in model performance evaluation. Firstly, the optimal boundary C and parameter gamma were optimized by the particle swarm algorithm. We then developed an algorithm to classify human abdominal adiposity according to the parameter setup of the SVM algorithm and constructed the prediction model using this algorithm. Finally, we designed experiments to compare the performances of the proposed method and the other methods. Results: There are different abdominal obesity prediction models in the 1 KHz and 250 KHz frequency bands. The experimental data demonstrates that for the frequency band of 250 KHz, the proposed method can reduce the false classification rate by 10.7%, 15%, and 33% in relation to the sole SVM algorithm, the regression model, and the waistline measurement model, respectively. For the frequency band of 1 KHz, the proposed model is still more accurate. (4) Conclusions: The proposed method effectively improves the prediction accuracy and reduces the sample size dependence of the algorithm, which can provide a reference for abdominal obesity.