Original Research Article Adiposity and Blood Pressure in 7- to 11-Year-Old Children: Comparison of British Pakistani and White British Children, and of British Pakistani Children of Migrant and British-Born Mothers EMILY J. HENDERSON, 1 * CAROLINE H.D. JONES, 2 YVONNE C. HORNBY-TURNER, 2 AND TESSA M. POLLARD 2 1 Evaluation, Research and Development Unit, Durham University, School of Medicine and Health, Wolfson Research Institute, Stockton-on-Tees, United Kingdom 2 Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom Objectives: This study tested hypotheses that: (1) levels of adiposity, as assessed by triceps and subscapular skinfold thicknesses (SFTs), and blood pressure would be higher in British Pakistani children than in white British children; and (2) British Pakistani children of mothers born in the UK would have smaller SFTs and lower blood pressure than children of mothers born in Pakistan. Methods: Participants aged 7 to 11 years were recruited from five primary schools in a deprived urban area. BMI, waist circumference, triceps and subscapular SFT, and blood pressure were measured. Results: Participants comprised 209 white British and 132 British Pakistani children, including 79 children born in the UK to migrant mothers and 49 children born to British-born mothers. In comparisons by ethnic group, triceps SFT was significantly higher in British Pakistani children only after controlling for BMI. Subscapular SFT was higher in British Pakistani children, a finding strengthened after controlling for BMI. Systolic blood pressure was significantly higher in British Pakistani children, but not after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES). There were no significant differences between British Pakistani children born to migrant or British-born mothers, except that systolic blood pressure was lower in children of British-born mothers after controlling for SES, a finding that was not significant after controlling for BMI. Conclusions: This study confirms previous findings of larger SFTs and higher blood pressure in British children of Pakistani origin than in children of white European origin. Further work with larger sample sizes is needed to investigate differences between generations. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 23:710–716, 2011. ' 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc. South Asians (people with origins in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, or Sri Lanka) living in Europe, the United States, and Canada have a higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease than people of white European origin (Anand et al., 2000; Kuppuswamy and Gupta, 2005; Misra and Vikram, 2004; Rajpathak et al., 2010; Riste et al., 2001). Higher levels of adiposity, espe- cially truncal and intra-abdominal adiposity, in South Asians are thought to contribute to this ethnic difference in disease risk (Misra and Khurana, 2011). Most studies of adiposity in people of South Asian origin living in West- ern countries have focused on adult migrants, but similar results have now been reported in studies of British chil- dren, most of whom were born in the UK. Where adiposity has been assessed by skinfold thicknesses, using bioelec- trical impedance, or DEXA scanning, children and adoles- cents of South Asian origin living in the UK have been shown to have a higher level of adiposity than children and adolescents of European origin (Ehtisham et al., 2005; Nightingale et al., 2011; Shaw et al., 2007; Whincup et al., 2005). Nightingale et al. (2011) found that fat mass index was highest in Bangladeshis, intermediate in Pakis- tanis and lowest in children of Indian origin, coinciding with relative risk of Type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease in these groups (Bhopal et al., 1999). There is much less evidence of a consistent difference between South Asian and white children in waist circumference or body mass index (Balakrishnan et al., 2008; Ehtisham et al., 2005; Harding et al., 2008; Nightingale et al., 2011; Saxena et al., 2004; Whincup et al., 2005). Studies of blood pressure have produced more mixed results. Findings in the UK suggest that adults of South Asian origin as a whole have similar blood pressure levels to European origin populations, with people of Indian and Pak- istani origin having higher blood pressure than people of Bangladeshi origin (Agyemang and Bhopal, 2002). In Can- ada, Anand et al. (2000) found no difference between South Asian and European origin adults in systolic blood pressure, but diastolic blood pressure was higher in those of South Asian origin. British South Asian children as a whole appear to have similar blood pressure to white British children, but the Health Survey for England, 1999, found that British Pakistani children had higher blood pressure than white British children (Agyemang et al., 2004). The high levels of adiposity and risk of related diseases observed in adults of the South Asian migrant generation has been attributed to a combination of physical inactivity, poor diet, developmental origins associated with spending their early life in a relatively poor environment (leading to a ‘‘thrifty phenotype’’), and genetic factors (Misra and Contract grant sponsor: Medical Anthropology Research Group at Durham University. *Correspondence to: Dr. Emily Henderson, Evaluation, Research and Development Unit, Durham University, School of Medicine and Health, Wolfson Research Institute, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 6BH, UK. E-mail: e.j.henderson@durham.ac.uk Received 17 December 2010; Revision received 22 April 2011; Accepted 3 June 2011 DOI 10.1002/ajhb.21204 Published online 25 July 2011 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary. com). AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY 23:710–716 (2011) V V C 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.