Studies of blood pressure in hyperlipidemic school children

To assess determinants of blood pressure and racial differences in blood pressure in hyperlipidemic children, and to compare blood pressure in hyperlipidemic and random recall groups of children, studies were carried out on 513 school children (ages 6 through 19 years), and 309 adults (ages 20 through 64), recalled by virtue of elevated cholesterol or triglyceride levels in the Cincinnati Lipid Research Clinic's Princeton School prevalence study. For systolic and diastolic blood pressure in children, there were positive simple correlations with plasma triglyceride and inverse correlations with plasma high density lipoprotein cholesterol. Race did not enter the multiple regression equations as a significant explanatory variable for children's systolic or diastolic blood pressures, but was a significant variable for adults' blood pressures; blacks had higher pressures. Major explanatory variables for systolic blood pressure in children included weight, pulse, and age; 46% of the variance was explained. Major variables for diastolic blood pressure in children included age, pulse, and Quetelet index; 25% of the variance was explained. After covariance adjusting for Quetelet index, blood pressures within race did not differ between the hyperlipidemic and the random recall groups. Quetelet index was the covariable that related positively to blood pressure and plasma triglycerides, and negatively to high density lipoprotein cholesterol. Although relative ponderosity does not appear to be an independent coronary heart disease risk factor variable, its inverse relationship to high density lipoprotein cholesterol and positive association with triglyceride and blood pressure in school children should provide a basis for prudent, early, therapeutic approaches to overweight children and those with persistently elevated blood pressure. (Arteriosclerosis 1981; 1:280-286).