Correlation between Body Mass Index and Blood Pressure in Adolescents

Background: The obesity and hypertension are the major risk factors of several life threatening diseases. The present study was conducted to study the correlation of Body Mass Index (BMI) the validated index of adiposity with blood pressure in adolescents. Objectives: To determine body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure of the adolescents and to find out the correlation between body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure.To advice about lifestyle modifications like aerobic exercises, diet management, and abstinence from alcohol and smoking. Methods: We obtained data from 300 healthy medical students (112 males and 188 females) and assessed the correlations between BMI and the systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). In view of gender differences in autonomic regulation, data of male and female subjects were analysed separately. The statistical analysis was done using t-test. Results: There was highly significant (p<0.001) positive correlation between BMI with SBP and DBP in both male and female subjects. On further analysis, on the basis of BMI subgroups, it was found that the correlation was significant (p<0.01) only in overweight males (BMI>23 Kg/m) compared to overweight females. Conclusion: BP is linearly related to BMI. The observed differences between the BMI subgroups may be possibly due to differences in autonomic function and metabolism.