The association between inflammation, obesity and elevated blood pressure in 16–25-year-old females

• Published in: Journal of human hypertension 2017-09, Vol.31 (9), p.580-584
• Main Authors: Subasinghe, A K, Wark, J D, Gorelik, A, Callegari, E T, Garland, S M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 13/51; 59/57; 692/499; 692/699/75/243; Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; Age Factors; Analysis; Biomarkers - blood; Blood Pressure; Body height; Body mass; Body Mass Index; Body weight; C-reactive protein; C-Reactive Protein - analysis; Chi-Square Distribution; Epidemiology; Female; Females; Health Administration; Health aspects; Health Surveys; Humans; Hypertension - diagnosis; Hypertension - epidemiology; Hypertension - physiopathology; Inflammation; Inflammation - blood; Inflammation - diagnosis; Inflammation - epidemiology; Inflammation - physiopathology; Inflammation Mediators - blood; Insurance claims; Logistic Models; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Multivariate Analysis; Obesity; Odds Ratio; original-article; Overweight; Pediatric Obesity - diagnosis; Pediatric Obesity - epidemiology; Pediatric Obesity - physiopathology; Prevalence; Public Health; Risk Factors; Sex Factors; Victoria - epidemiology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0950-9240; 1476-5527
• DOI: 10.1038/jhh.2017.33

There is evidence to show an association between inflammation, obesity and elevated blood pressure. However, there is limited data for this relationship in adolescent females. We aimed to investigate the association between high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and elevated blood pressure in young Australian females. Women aged 16–25 years living in Victoria were randomly recruited via targeted Facebook advertising. Socio-demographic information was collected via a web-based questionnaire. Anthropometric and blood pressure measurements were conducted by trained staff. Hs-CRP was assessed using the Abbott Architect assay. The demographic data were collected from 639 females (mean ±s.d. age: 22±3). The blood pressure data were available for 502 participants. Approximately 28% had elevated blood pressure (defined by a blood pressure reading ⩾120–139/80–89 mm Hg for adults and >90th and 3.0 mg l −1 and 30% were overweight or obese. In multivariable logistic regression analyses, obese females (OR: 5.5, 95% CI: 2.4−12.5, P