Central obesity may contribute to the development of hypertension in youths with diabetes. The SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study followed 1518 youths with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and 177 with type 2 diabetes (T2D) diagnosed when <20 years of age for incident hypertension. Incident hypertension was defined as blood pressure ≥95th percentile (or ≥130/80 mm Hg) or reporting antihypertensive therapy among those without hypertension at baseline. Poisson regression models were stratified by diabetes type and included demographic and clinical factors, clinical site, and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). Youths with T2D were more likely to develop hypertension than those with T1D (35.6% vs 14.8%, P < .0001). For each 0.01 unit of annual increase in WHtR, adjusted relative risk for hypertension was 1.53 (95% CI 1.36-1.73) and 1.20 (95% CI 1.00-1.43) for youths with T1D and T2D, respectively. Effective strategies targeted toward reducing central obesity may reduce hypertension among youths with diabetes.
Keywords: adolescents; children; diabetes type 1; diabetes type 2; hypertension.
© 2020 The Authors. The Journal of Clinical Hypertension published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.