Objective: The present study was undertaken to investigate the role of neck circumference (NC) in predicting prehypertension in children and adolescents.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study including 6,802 children and adolescents (3,631 boys and 3,171 girls) aged 5-18 years. Main anthropometric data and related information were collected.
Results: The prevalence of prehypertension was 14.4%, 16.4% and 17.1% in normal weight, overweight and obese group respectively. Among the participants with normal body mass index (BMI), higher NC was significantly associated with increased odds of prehypertension (OR: 1.439; 95% CI: 1.118 to 1.853) after adjustment for age, gender, BMI and WC. Significant associations between NC and either systolic blood pressure (SBP) (β=0.581 mmHg) or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (β=0.236 mmHg) were found in the linear regression. No significant ORs were observed either in overweight or in obese categories.
Conclusion: We concluded that additional measure of NC might expand the ability of BMI for the identification of prehypertension in normal weight children and adolescents.