Abstract
To date, there has been no study done investigating the relationship between the components of height and blood pressure (BP) in rural South African children. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between height, sitting height (SH), leg length (LL), and SH-to-height ratio (SH/H) with BP in Ellisras rural children. All children underwent anthropometric and BP measurements using standard procedure. Linear regression was used to assess the relationship between height, SH, LL, SH/H, and BP. The regression showed a positive significant (p < 0.001) association between systolic BP (SBP) with height and SH (β ranged from 0.127 to 0.134 and 95% CI ranged from 0.082 to 0.415). Diastolic BP (DBP) also showed a positive significant (p < 0.001) association with height and SH (β ranged from 0.080 to 0.088 and 95% CI ranged from 0.042 to 0.259). After having been adjusted for age, gender, body mass index, and waist circumference, DBP showed a positive significant (p < 0.05) association with height. There was a positive significant association between DBP and SBP together with the components of height amongst Ellisras rural children.
Highlights
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are major public health problems in Africa
Economic development in South Africa has led to lifestyle changes that contribute to a high prevalence of high blood pressure (BP) and type 2 diabetes [3,4]
Our findings showed that height and sitting height (SH) not SH-to-height ratio (SH/H) were significantly (p < 0.05) associated with both systolic BP (SBP) and Diastolic BP (DBP) in the Ellisras rural sample
Summary
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are major public health problems in Africa. It is known that risk factors for CVD start early in life and increase morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan African adults [1,2]. Economic development in South Africa has led to lifestyle changes that contribute to a high prevalence of high blood pressure (BP) and type 2 diabetes [3,4]. Growth proportion may be used to detect growth abnormalities which may lead to CVD in children over time. Growth proportion is mostly represented by components of height, sitting height (SH), leg length (LL) and SH-to-height ratio (SH/H). Many studies reported that BP is closely associated with growth proportion in adults from both developed and developing countries [6,7]
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