Abstract

Correlations of adolescents' blood pressure with dietary factors and blood or urinary electrolytes were investigated in this study. Through the screening for blood pressures of 960 middle school students aged 13-16 years, 30 students with the mean value of SBP and DBP above 96th percentile(high blood pressure group) and the other 30 with the mean blood pressure between 48th and 52th percentiles(normal blood pressure group) were selected as the subjects. SBP/DBP of the high and talc normal blood pressure groups were $141.8{\pm}9.0$ / $83.6{\pm}5.1$ mmHg and $116.4{\pm}3.5$ / $69.8{\pm}3.7 mmHg$, respectively. The average values of age, weight, height, BMI, degree of relative crude physical activity, and family income were not different between two groups. Among nutrients for which intakes were determined by 24 hour-recall and expressed as percent RDA, intakes of total and animal calcium were lower in the high blood pressure group compared to the normal, and were negatively correlated with both SBP and DBP even when the effects of related general and other dietary factors were excluded. Whereas energy, total, animal and vegetable protein, total and animal lipid, and riboflavin were higher in intake in the high blood pressure group than in fille normal, and they were in positive correlations with SBP and/or DBP. Vitamin A and ascorbic acid intakes were also negatively correlated with DBP, though ascorbic acid intake was not different between two groups. High blood pressure group preferred higher concentration of thin rice gruel than normal group and talc preferred salt concentrations was ill positive correlation with SBP. Serum and urinary levels of Ca, Mg, Ca/Mg ratio, Na, K and Na/K ratio did not show any differences between two groups. However serum Ca/Mg retio was in negative and se겨m Mg was ill positive correlations with SBP, and urinary Na excretion was negatively correlated with SBP. Calcium intake showed negative correlation with serum Ha and Na/K ratio. Our data indicated that dietary intake of Ca, energy, protein, lipid, vitamin A and C as well as salt preference were associated with blood pressure in adolescents. It might be assumed that Ca lowered blood pressure by increasing serum Ca/Mg ratio and decreasing serum Ca/K ratio though urinary excretion of Na.

• Keywords: blood pressure; dietary factors; calcium; salt preference;