Presence of physical symptoms in healthy adolescence found to be associated with female gender, obesity, tachycardia, diastolic hypertension and smoking.

Background: The goal of this study was to evaluate any association between physical symptoms and abnormal clinical history in adolescence undergoing screening echocardiography performed by Anthony Bates Foundation.

Method: The Anthony Bates Foundation has been performing screening echocardiography across the United States for the prevention of sudden death since 2001. We performed uni- and multivariate analysis to evaluate any association between physical symptoms with gender, smoking, obesity, heart rate, and hypertension.

Results: We found a strong association between symptoms and the female gender (33% vs. 17.5% of males, P < 0.001). Furthermore, obesity (46.5% vs. 22.5%, P < 0.001), smoking (46.2% vs. 22.5%, P = 0.04), heart rate > 90 (34.8 vs. 22.8%, P = 0.001), and diastolic blood pressure > 90 (34.9% vs. 23.4%, P = 0.03) were all associated with symptoms. Increased systolic pressure was not associated with physical symptoms (24.3% vs. 21.9%, P = 0.4). Using multivariate analysis, female gender, diastolic blood pressure and obesity remained independently associated with physical symptoms. (Female gender: OR: 2.2, CI: 1.7-2.9, P < 0.001, obesity: OR: 2.5, CI 1.2-5.05, P = 0.009, and high diastolic blood pressure: OR: 2.08, CI 1.1-3.7, P = 0.01).

Conclusion: Physical symptoms are associated with smoking, female gender, obesity, tachycardia, and high diastolic blood pressure but not systolic pressure in adolescence undergoing routine screening echocardiography.