ABO Blood Group Associations with Cardiovascular Risk Factor Variables II. Blood Pressure, Obesity, and their Anthropometric Covariables: The Bogalusa Heart Study

Relationships between ABO phenotype and levels of blood pressure, obesity (as assessed by triceps skinfold thickness) and two potentially confounding anthropométrie covariables (height and weight) were examined in 655 Caucasian (White) and 371 Afro-American (Black) adolescents attending schools in Bogalusa, Louisiana. ABO associations with systolic and diastolic blood pressure were assessed independently and on the basis of pressure measurements obtained by two recording instruments (Hg sphygmomanometer and Physiometrics automatic recorder). When adjusted for both age and appropriate height/weight covariables, data on the White sample indicated significant associations between ABO phenotype and levels of systolic blood pressure (as measured by either instrument), height, and weight. Both male and female adolescents ranking over the 85th percentile of the above distributions differed from peers ranking at lower percentiie levels in that they were consistently characterized by a proportionately higher representation of A phenotypes (also B in male height distribution) and a proportionately lower representation of O phenotypes. Omission of height/weight adjustment of pressure measurements had little effect on the results of analyses of ABO-blood pressure associations. Data on the Black sample, whether adjusted or unadjusted for height/weight covariables, failed to identify any consistently significant relationships between ABO phenotype and height, weight, skinfold thickness or systolic blood pressure.Data on ABO-diastolic pressure relationships were equivocal. Although analyses of ABO-pressure level relationships in either male or female Physiometrics diastolic pressure distributions consistently indicated significant associations of O and B phenotypes with, respectively, high and low levels of pressure, comparable analyses of sphygmomanometer data failed to identify significant associations in either sex. Further study of whether sphygmomanometer or Physiometrics measurements of diastolic pressure more closely approximate actual intra-arterial pressures is indicated.