ESPE Abstracts

Background: Pediatric hypertension is a risk factor for adult hypertension and cardiovascular disease which entails the necessity of early detection.

Aim: To investigate how nutrition habits are correlated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) in health children and adolescent population.

Methods: 1395 children and adolescents from Greece were enrolled to participate in the research. A specially designed questionnaire regarding to eating habits -on a weekly basis- was used. Blood pressure was measured twice for each child with a 10-minute interval between the measurements. The mean value was taken into consideration as the final. The percentile for blood pressure was calculated according to children’s age and height. Children had studied in 3 groups: group A were children< 9 years old (36.77%), group B were children ≥9 and ≤14 years old (36.06%) and group C were children children>14 and <17 years old (27.17%).

Results: The percentage of children with SBP%>95 was: 29.4% in group A, 35.9% in group B and 34% in group C. The majority of children consume breakfast every morning (85.9%). Children of group C consume less fruits, vegetables, cereals, olive oil and milk products and more fast food while they are not used to consume their meals at the same time every day. The logistic regression analysis showed that children of the group A who consume meat more than 3 times per week have 123.6% greater relative probability for increased SBP (P=0.038). Additionally it was found that children of the group B who consume cereals more than 3 times per week have 83.2%% greater relative probability for increased SBP (P=0.032). Regarding children of the group C, it was found that those who consume meat and fast food more than 3 times per week have respectively 226.4% (P=0.045) and 70.2% (P=0.037) greater relative probability for increased SBP. On the contrary, children who consume fish more than 3 times per week have 61.5% lower relative probability for increased SBP (P=0.003). Children who consume olive oil products more than 3 times per week have 71.1% lower relative probability for increased SBP (P=0.043). Children who breastfed have a 44.8% lower chance of an increase in SBP% (≥90%) versus others (P=0.031).

Conclusions: Diet plays a crucial role in blood pressure regulation. The adjustment of dietary structure may be helpful in both prevention and treatment of hypertension.