Systolic Blood Pressure as an Independent Predictor of Metabolic Syndrome in Male Adolescents

Background: Recent evidence has shown that adults with metabolic syndrome (MetS) have significantly higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) than normal during childhood. However, it has not been well-documented the extent to which systolic blood pressure predicts metabolic syndrome in male adolescents. Methods: We retrospectively studied a total of 614 male adolescents 10 to 15 years of age who received a health examination at a private health screening center from 1999 to 2008 (mean follow-up time is 2.71 years). These examinations included anthropometric, blood pressure, and biochemical measurements such as fasting plasma glucose and lipid profiles. All subjects were normotensive and refrained from taking any medications known to affect MetS components. Only adolescent boys were included in this study because the incidence of MetS for girls in this cohort was considered too low to perform further analysis. We divided our subjects into 3 groups according to baseline SBP. Multivariate linear regression analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to identify the association of anthropometric parameters with the SBP at baseline. Results: Among 614 subjects, the incidence of metabolic syndrome in boys is 3.1%. Boys with baseline SBP 120 mmHg have a higher risk of developing MetS than boys with baseline SBP < 110 mmHg (odds ratio: 31.78; 95% confidence interval for the difference = 4.16-243.07, p < 0.001). Age, waist circumference, body mass index, fasting plasma glucose, low serum high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol and high triglyceride correlated significantly with baseline SBP (p < 0.001). Among all the parameters, body mass index had the strongest association with baseline SBP in male adolescents. Waist circumference was the strongest independent contributor to baseline SBP in male adolescents. Conclusion: SBP in male adolescents is an independent predictor for metabolic syndrome in male adolescents and could be included in routine metabolic risk assessment.