Blood pressure in Jamaican children: Relationship to body size and composition

Blood pressure levels in adults and children are related to body size and c omposition, bur some of these relationships are unclear and they have been incompletely described in the Jamaican population. In a cross-sectional sur vey of 2,332 school children (6-16 years old 1,046 boys, 1,286 girls), we m easured systolic and diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate, and explored their relationship to weight, height, and waist, hip and mid-upper arm circ umferences. The effect of these and other derived measures of body composit ion on blood pressure was explored in univariate and multivariate analysis. Blood pressure increased with age in both boys and girls, although the inc rease was greater for systolic than for diastolic blood pressure. The incre ase of systolic blood pressure among boys continued after age 11 years, but that for girls levelled off Height and weight were the major predictors of blood pressure, but were highly correlated with each other and with all me asures of body composition. Age, height and height-sex interaction explaine d 11.4% of systolic blood pressure variation, and the largest incremental c ontribution to this model was provided by the addition of body mass index o r hip circumference, each explaining an additional 2.6% of the variance. Le an body mass made a larger contribution to blood pressure than percent fatn ess. Blood pressure in Jamaican children rises with age and this rise may b e steeper in boys than girls. Blood pressure variation is significantly rel ated to several measures of body composition including measures of fatness and fat free mass.