Adolescent obesity and short sleep duration as independent risk factors for hypertension: a population-based cohort study

Prevalence of hypertension in adolescents has increased worldwide and is considered a risk factor for hypertension and cardiovascular disease in adulthood. Although obesity and sleep deficiency increase this risk, the combined effects of these factors on hypertension remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the combined effects of obesity and sleep duration on hypertension in adolescents. This study was conducted using data from the 2016 to 2018 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which included a study population of 1272 adolescents. The participants were categorized into four groups based on sleep duration and body mass index (BMI) percentiles: normal sleep and normal body mass group (reference; normal), only short sleep group (short sleep), only overweight/obesity group (overweight/obesity), and short sleep and overweight/obesity group (short sleep and overweight/obesity). Short sleep duration was defined as <8 h of average sleep duration, and overweight/obesity was defined as a BMI ≥ 85th percentile. Hypertension in adolescents was defined as a systolic blood pressure ≥130 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure ≥80 mmHg. The prevalence of hypertension was 9.2% among Korean adolescents. Short sleep duration with overweight/obesity were associated with a significantly increased risk of hypertension (odds ratio = 6.57; 95% confidence interval: 3.27–13.20) in adolescents, and controlling for the potential confounding variables only partially attenuated this relationship (odds ratio = 5.28; 95% confidence interval: 2.28–12.26). This study demonstrated that the coexistence of short sleep duration and obesity was associated with an increased risk of hypertension in Korean adolescents.