Michelle Harbin, MS and doctoral student in the School of Kinesiology is the lead author of an article published in the American Journal of Hypertension. The article, Measurement of Central Aortic Blood Pressure in Youth: Role of Obesity and Sex, provides evidence that obesity related impairments in central aortic blood pressure and increased cardiovascular disease risk appear to occur within the first two decades of life.

Compared with percent fat mass or visceral adipose tissue, body mass index was more strongly associated with central aortic blood pressure among children and adolescents, suggesting body size may be a more important determining factor than adiposity during childhood.

Donald R. Dengel, Ph.D., professor at the School of Kinesiology and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Human Physiology, and Nick Evanoff, MS, a current doctoral student in the School of Kinesiology, co-authored this article.