Risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in adolescents

Cardiovascular health indicators in soccer exercise during adolescence: systematic review

This review analyzed the studies that evaluated cardiovascular health indicators (blood pressure, waist circumference, heart rate, glucose index and lipid blood) in recreational soccer players during adolescence, and identify possible associated factors. The search was performed in the electronic databases (PubMED, SciELO, LILACS, Scopus, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science). Inclusion criteria were: population composed of children and/or adolescents (10-19 years or average age up to 19 years); studies adolescents engaged in recreational soccer regularly and observational studies with cross-sectional or longitudinal design. The process of analysis of studies involved reading titles, abstracts and full texts. After these phases, seven articles were eligible. Regarding the design, all studies were cross-sectional. Of the total studies included, five presented moderate methodological quality values and two presented low methodological quality values, according to National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute instrument. The most cardiovascular health indicators used in recreational soccer players during adolescence was waist circumference; three studies analyzed heart rate, two evaluated blood pressure, one analyzed insulin resistance and none of the included studies analyzed lipid profile. Factors associated were analyzed in four studies, being that sedentary time and body mass index (BMI) present association with at least one indicator of cardiovascular health.

Relationship between High Blood Pressure and Microalbuminuria in Children Aged 6-9 Years in a South African Population

Though the association between high blood pressure and microalbuminuria is well established in adults, there is a paucity of information on microalbuminuria in children. This study investigated the relationship between high blood pressure and microalbuminuria in 6-9-year-old children. A cross-sectional study, which included 306 primary school children of age 6-9 years old from urban areas (n = 154) and rural areas (n = 152) of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, was conducted. Participants' anthropometric data were determined and systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) were measured and converted to BP percentiles for age, sex and height. Creatinine and albumin concentrations were assayed in early morning midstream urine and the albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) was calculated. There was a 42.8% prevalence of elevated blood pressure/high blood pressure (E-BP/H-BP) and a 10.1% prevalence of microalbuminuria. Among the 131 children with E-BP/H-BP, 17 had elevated ACR with a prevalence of 13.95%. SBP and HR increased with increasing range of ACR and, furthermore, SBP was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in children with moderately and severely increased ACR. SBP was associated with ACR and increased SBP predicted microalbuminuria (R2 = 0.42, adj R2 = 0.039, B: 0.120, p = < 0.05). In conclusion, microalbuminuria was present in 6-9-year-old South African children of African Ancestry and a weak association was observed with SBP in children.