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 6-14 years 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 (r(2)=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 (r(2)=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. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.