Abstract
Though the association between high blood pressure and microalbuminuria is well established in adults, there is a paucity of information on microalbuminuria in children. This study investigated the relationship between high blood pressure and microalbuminuria in 6–9-year-old children. A cross-sectional study, which included 306 primary school children of age 6–9 years old from urban areas (n = 154) and rural areas (n = 152) of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, was conducted. Participants’ anthropometric data were determined and systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) were measured and converted to BP percentiles for age, sex and height. Creatinine and albumin concentrations were assayed in early morning midstream urine and the albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) was calculated. There was a 42.8% prevalence of elevated blood pressure/high blood pressure (E-BP/H-BP) and a 10.1% prevalence of microalbuminuria. Among the 131 children with E-BP/H-BP, 17 had elevated ACR with a prevalence of 13.95%. SBP and HR increased with increasing range of ACR and, furthermore, SBP was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in children with moderately and severely increased ACR. SBP was associated with ACR and increased SBP predicted microalbuminuria (R2 = 0.42, adj R2 = 0.039, B: 0.120, p = < 0.05). In conclusion, microalbuminuria was present in 6–9-year-old South African children of African Ancestry and a weak association was observed with SBP in children.
Highlights
Hypertension is the leading cause of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and premature death worldwide
Though the prevalence of hypertension has decreased in high-income countries in the past four years, the prevalence of hypertension has increased in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)
Three hundred and six (306) children were recruited for this study, which included 152 (49.8%)
Summary
Hypertension is the leading cause of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and premature death worldwide. It is estimated that approximately 1.04 billion (31.5%) of people in LMICs are hypertensive [1]. The increasing global prevalence of hypertension or high blood pressure in LMICs is a public health problem of concern [2]. Though hypertension was generally considered to be a health problem in adults, it is becoming prevalent in children. A recent meta-analysis study in children below 19 years of age showed that the pooled prevalence of hypertension was 4%, with approximately 10% for pre-hypertension. This study showed that childhood hypertension was on the rise, with a 75% increase from 2000 to 2015. More so, this prevalence of hypertension range from 4.32% in children aged 6 years
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