Sitting-height measures are related to body mass index and blood pressure levels in children.

Objective: Sitting height (SH) is an important parameter in the evaluation of children with growth and pubertal disorders. Besides this, it has been viewed as a biomarker of cardiovascular risk, which is increased in adults with relatively short legs. So, the aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between body proportions and cardiovascular risk markers in children.

Subjects and methods: Eight hundred and seventeen children aged 6-13 years were evaluated. Weight, height, sitting-height (SH), sitting-height/height (SH/H), body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure (BP) were assessed and converted to standard deviation scores (SDS) for age and sex. Statistical analyses were performed.

Results: There was a positive association of BMI SDS with SH and SH/H SDS (p<0.001). Overweight children showed SH 0.8 SDS superior to eutrophic children (p<0.001). SH SDS was also directly related to BP SDS, but this association was not independent of the association between obesity and BP when assessed by multiple regression analyzes.

Conclusion: Measures of SH are strongly associated with BMI and BP in children, although the association between SH and BP is probably dependent on the association of both those variables with BMI. This is (an) important information for correct interpretation of SH values in children.