Resting And Exercise Blood Pressure And Clustered Activity-related Risk In Adolescents

PURPOSE: Evidence on the association between resting blood pressure and various lifestyle factors is well documented among children and adolescents. However, research on the relationship to exercise blood pressure and, moreover, its association with a cluster of risk factors is sparse. We investigated whether systolic blood pressure (SBP) at rest and during exercise were linked to several activity-related lifestyle parameters separately and to a continuous clustered risk score based on those variables. METHODS: Data on 531 adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age (14.6 ± 1.5 years, 271 boys and 260 girls) were analyzed. BMI-percentile, waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height-ratio (WtHR), screen time, moderate-to-vigorous activity (MVPA), physical fitness (Physical Working Capacity 170), BP at rest and during a submaximal ergometer exercise test (at 1.5 W/kg body weight) were assessed. A clustered risk index was calculated as the sum of standardized z-scores of the subcomponents (BMI-percentile, WC, MVPA, screen time, physical fitness) in order to evaluate the associations with SBP values using linear regression models. RESULTS: The average resting BP was 117.2 ± 13.5 / 57.6 ± 6.8 mm Hg and exercise BP was 149.9 ± 19.8/54.2 ± 8.6 mm Hg. After adjusting for age, sex and height, resting and exercise SBP were both directly related (p<0.001) to BMI-percentile (ß=0.287 vs. ß=0.316), WC (ß=0.339 vs. ß=0.303) and WtHR (ß=0.310 vs. ß=0.275). A higher amount of MVPA per week was beneficially linked to resting (ß=-0.095, p=0.02) and exercise-induced SBP (ß=-0.087, p=0.036), while longer screen-based sedentary behavior (ß=0.098, p=0.024 vs. ß=0.123, p=0.005) and poorer physical fitness (ß=-0.271 vs. ß=-0.275, p<0.001) were adversely associated to both parameters. We found a statistically significant association between the clustered activity-related risk score and SBP at rest (ß=0.333, p<0.001), as well as during submaximal exercise (ß=0.351, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that among adolescents SBP during submaximal exercise is associated with negative lifestyle behavior patterns, which are in turn closely linked to physical activity. The prevention of clustered lifestyle risk factors should start in the younger age.