Prevalence of elevated blood pressure and BMI in U.S. children and adolescents [abstract] Abstract uri icon
Overview
abstract
  • Background/Aims: To ascertain the prevalence and joint prevalence of elevated BMI and elevated BP in children and adolescents receiving clinical care, using electronic medical record (EMR) data. Methods: We studied BP and BMI percentiles (%) of 79,838 U.S. subjects age 3 to 17 years with three or more eligible BP percentile measures from 1/1/2007 to 12/31/2009. We extracted data on age, diastolic and systolic BP, height, and weight from electronic medical records (EMR) and calculated BMI percentiles and BP percentiles using standard methods. Here we report by age group the proportions of subjects with normal BMI and normal BP percentile, elevated BMI >=85th percentile or >=95th percentile, or hypertension (HT) defined as elevated BP >= 95th percentile on 3 or more occasions, or Pre-Hypertension (Pre-HT) defined as BP >= 90th percentile at least once but not meeting definition for HT. Results: Data supplied as a table, not accepted by abstract software. Discussion: The proportion of children and adolescents with both normal BP and normal BMI was 46.7% and decreased with age, while the proportion with both elevated BP and BMI rose from 7.8% to 20.0% with increasing age. Clinical and public policy initiatives to reduce the very high frequency of these risk factors in U.S. children and adolescents should be carefully considered.

  • publication date
  • 2012
  • published in
    Research
    keywords
  • Adolescent
  • Body Mass Index
  • Hypertension
  • Obesity
  • Pediatrics
  • Prevalence
  • Additional Document Info
    volume
  • 10
  • issue
  • 3