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Obesity and blood pressure—results from the examination of 2365 schoolchildren in Germany

International Journal of Obesity volume 27, pages 1459–1464 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between different indices of body fat and blood pressure in children and adolescents.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional cohort study along with regular public health service examinations in school classes two, five and nine.

PARTICIPANTS: A total of 2365 healthy schoolchildren aged 8–16 y.

MEASUREMENTS: Body mass index (BMI), skinfolds, waist–hip ratio, body fat determined by bioelectric impedance analysis and blood pressure.

RESULTS: In comparison with recently published normative data, a significant increase of obesity was found. There is a higher prevalence of obesity in children with lower education. A positive association between body fat and hypertension was observed in children aged above 10 y. The BMI had the strongest association with blood pressure among the indices of body fat considered here.

CONCLUSION: Obesity is an increasing problem even among schoolchildren. This observation should be treated seriously as the relationship of body fat to cardiovascular risk is detectable already at a young age. Attention should be paid to the dependence of obesity on the level of education. The analysis suggests that BMI should be the preferred index to assess body fat.

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Acknowledgements

We express our sincere gratitude to the nurses and physicians of the community health authorities, in particular Bodo Gronemann of the Public Health Department of the city Leipzig, for the logistic support. We are in debt of the children and their parents for their agreement and participation in the study. The help of Hella de Paly, Alexandra Keller and Alexander Lammert (University Hospital for Children and Adolescents Leipzig) is also gratefully acknowledged. Part of the work was supported by unrestricted grants from the pharmaceutical companies Novo Nordisk, Lilly and Pharmacia. The fourth author was supported by a grant from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, IZKF Leipzig, Germany.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Hospital for Children and Adolescents Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    A Reich, G Müller, K Deutscher & W Kiess

  2. Coordination Center for Clinical Trials Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    G Gelbrich

  3. Public Health Department of the City of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    R Gödicke

Authors
  1. A Reich
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  2. G Müller
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  3. G Gelbrich
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  4. K Deutscher
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  5. R Gödicke
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  6. W Kiess
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Correspondence to W Kiess.

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Reich, A., Müller, G., Gelbrich, G. et al. Obesity and blood pressure—results from the examination of 2365 schoolchildren in Germany. Int J Obes 27, 1459–1464 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802462

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