Metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) begins in childhood and continues into adulthood. However, the association between MHO and the risk of developing hypertension remains controversial. A prospective cohort study was conducted to investigate the risk of hypertension in MHO and metabolically unhealthy normal-weight (MUNW) Chinese children and adolescents. A total of 1183 participants, 6-18 years old at baseline with normal blood pressure values, were studied using follow-up data from the cohort of the Beijing Child and Adolescent Metabolic Syndrome (BCAMS) study. The participants were classified according to the body mass index and the presence/absence of metabolic abnormality, which was defined by metabolic syndrome (MetS) or insulin resistance (IR). During the 6-year follow-up period, 239 (20.2%) participants developed incident hypertension. After adjusting for age, sex, physical activity, pubertal stage, dietary habits and family history of hypertension, an increased risk for hypertension was observed in the MHO individuals (risk ratio, RRMetS 5.42; 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.19-9.22 and RRIR 7.59; 95% CI 1.64-35.20) compared with their metabolically healthy normal-weight counterparts. Independent of the definition of metabolic abnormality, the MUNW subjects did not have an elevated incidence of hypertension. These results suggest that the risk of developing hypertension is increased in the MHO but not in the MUNW individuals.

BackgroudTo determine whether the professional Omron HBP-1300 blood pressure (BP) monitor meets American Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) accuracy standards in Chinese children and adults.MethodAccording to the AAMI protocol, simultaneous auscultatory measurements by two observers using a mercury manometer were obtained in participants using the Omron HBP-1300. Triple measurements were obtained after a minimum 5-min rest with a 1-min interval between adjacent measurements.ResultsA total of 85 participants submitted to 255 doctor-measured BP and 255 successful professional monitor readings. The initial auscultation systolic BP was <100 mmHg in 25 participants (29.4 %), 100–160 mmHg in 53 participants (62.4 %), and >160 mmHg in seven participants (8.2 %). All of the simultaneous measurements agreed to within ±10 mmHg, while 95 % agreed to within ±4 mmHg for both systolic and diastolic BP, and the consistency between two observers was satisfactory. The difference between the devices was -1.3 ± 3.6 mmHg for systolic BP and 0.7 ± 3.8 mmHg for diastolic BP and by AAMI method 1, which met this guideline. The average difference between two devices by AAMI method 2 was 1.4 ± 3.2 mmHg for systolic BP and 1.0 ± 3.9 mmHg for diastolic BP, which met this guideline.ConclusionThe professional BP monitor Omron HBP-1300 is desirable for measuring the BP for Chinese children and adults.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12872-015-0177-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.