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

BackgroundLipid standards in Italy are lacking in children and adolescents whereas those for blood pressure (BP) were derived from US surveys.MethodsIn a 14-town community in Southern Italy 1657 (64%) of 2594 children aged 6-14 years were enrolled and anthropometric, BP, lipid and glucose serum levels were obtained.ResultsAverage 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).ConclusionIn 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.