A Kaiser Permanente study of more than 800,000 youth between the ages of 3 and 17 showed that youth in the upper average weight range had a 26% higher risk of developing hypertension than those approaching what is considered a average weight.
This retrospective cohort study analyzed the electronic health records of 801,019 youth who were Kaiser Permanente members in Southern California between 2008 and 2015. The researchers compared the youth by their baseline body mass index, known as BMI, along with their change in BMI during the 5-year Follow-up. The researchers also looked at their blood pressure to determine who had high blood pressure. The researchers divided average body weight into low (5th to 39th percentile), medium (40th to 59th percentile), and high (60th to 84th percentile) to provide information about the risk of hypertension at a weight below what would normally be considered overweight. Unlike adults, BMI levels among children and adolescents must be expressed relative to others of the same age and sex.
The researchers found: Compared with youth in the middle range of average weight, the risk of developing hypertension within 5 years was 26% higher for youth at the upper end of the range of average weight.
Children gain weight over time. Each BMI unit gained per year increases your risk of hypertension by 4%.
The rate of hypertension was higher among boys than among girls and among young people.
The study was published today in the journal JAMA Network Open.