The impact of folic acid/VB12 deficiency on essential hypertension in children and adolescents: from a nested case-control and a cohort study

Abstract

To explore the relationship between serum folic acid (FA) or Vitamin B12 (VB12) and elevated BP in children and adolescents. Both a nested case control and a cohort study were designed to explore the relationship between serum folic acid (FA) or Vitamin B12 (VB12) and elevated blood pressure (BP). All the included participants were from primary school. A total of 326 subjects (116:210) in nested case control were from an established cohort. And 270 participants without hypertension at baseline and followed in 2019 in cohort. FA and VB12 levels were lower in the elevated BP group than in the control group, and homocysteine level was higher than that in the control group. In the elevated BP group, overweight/obese children had lower FA than overweight/obese children in the normal BP group. FA was positively correlated with high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and Apo lipoprotein A (APOA), but negatively correlated with triglyceride (TG). FA was significantly correlated with elevated BP in children and adolescents (β = –0.353, P = 0.032), after adjusting VB12, and homocysteine (HCY), and the interaction effect of FA*HCY was significant. Both systolic and diastolic BP levels were statistically lower in the FA high exposure group than in the FA low exposure group in the cohort study. This study found that FA and vitamin B12 deficiency in childhood was correlated with elevated BP levels, which may affect BP by regulating lipid levels, and confirmed the importance of maintaining high levels of FA and vitamin B12 in childhood either by diet or supplementation.