Obesity and hypertension in childhood: how large is the problem?

Abstract

PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH 17:10 41 were collected retrospectively from the computerised pathology system (ESR, CRP, haemoglobin, platelets, white cell count and mean cell volume) and core set data from the patients’ hospital records: Child Health Assessment Questionnaire scores (CHAQ) and Doctor’s Severity Scores (DSS), selfor parent-assessed patient well-being, patient pain, number of active and restricted joints). Data sets were taken from each hospital visit. Data were entered into the statistical package for the social sciences and correlated using Pearson’s r correlation. The primary outcome variables were the ESR and CRP correlated with the CHAQ and DSS. Full ethical and governance approval was obtained. Results: Fifty-six children were invited to participate, of whom 34 consented but 3 met the exclusion criteria; thus, 31 participated. A total of 88 visits were made, and all contained the primary outcome variables. Entire data sets were available for 67 visits. The ESR correlated to both DSS (r = 0.46) and CHAQ (r = 0.36; at P = 0.01). CRP correlated less strongly with DSS (0.31, P = 0.01) and even less strongly with CHAQ (r = 0.22, P = 0.05). ESR also correlated at the 0.01 level to active joints (0.72), restricted joints (0.32), haemoglobin (–0.55) and platelets (0.47). Conclusions: ESR correlated with greater strength and at higher levels of significance with markers of clinical disease activity in children with JIA, compared with CRP. These preliminary results warrant further investigation.