Arterial blood pressure and serum lipids in a population of children and adolescents from Southern Italy: The Calabrian Sierras Community Study (CSCS)

Background Lipid standards in Italy are lacking in children and adolescents whereas those for blood pressure (BP) were derived from US surveys. Methods In a 14-town community in Southern Italy 1657 (64%) of 2594 children aged 6–14years were enrolled and anthropometric, BP, lipid and glucose serum levels were obtained. Results Average systolic BP was 101±11 (60–150) mm Hg and cholesterol (CholT) level was 156±28 (57–264) mg/dl. There were positive (p<0.00001) age-trends for systolic BP and body mass index (BMI) in both genders whereas age-trends for CholT and heart rate were negative (p<0.00001). A negative age-trend in both genders was also seen for non-HDL cholesterol (p<0.03). Based on 95% percentile gender and age distributions, there were 177 (10.68%) hypertensive (HT) and 82 (4.94%) hypercholesterolemic (HC) children or adolescents. Univariately, HT had higher (p<0.00001) height, weight, BMI, arm circumference, hips, waist, diastolic BP and waist/height, whereas HC had higher LDL-, HDL and non-HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides (p<0.01). Systolic BP was predicted (r2=0.2810, p=0.00001) by age (t=2.319, p<0.0205), male gender (t=3.179, p<0.0015), glucose (t=2.357, p<0.0186), height (t=2.473, p<0.0135), arm circumference (t=3.313, p<0.0009) and heart rate (t=4.161, p<0.00001). CholT was related inversely (r2=0.1399, p=0.00001) to height (t=−3.928, p<0.0001), weight (t=−3.922, p<0.0001) and waist/height (t=−4.797, p<0.00001) and directly to BMI (t=3.064, p<0.0022), waist (t=5.149, p<0.0000), triglycerides (t=11.332, p<0.00001) and female gender (t=−2.041, p<0.0414). Conclusion In these Southern Italian children and adolescents systolic BP and CholT are related with anthropometric and other variables, not confined to height. BP is lower than previously reported.