In children and adolescents, high body mass index correlates with elevated blood pressure.
Genetic factors make a significant contribution to the variation of obesity and hypertension.
The investigators will address how genetic and environmental factors influence the co-occurrence of obesity and hypertension during development and aim to identify cardiovascular risk factors in adolescence that will predict CVD in adults. Genetically informative cardiovascular and anthropometric data from childhood to young adulthood will help answer these questions. The LLTS is a longitudinal population-based study of 105 Belgian twin pairs and parents with anthropometry, cardiovascular and fitness assessments between ages 10 and 18. Genetic epidemiologic methods provide information about the causes of the variation and covariation, and the direction of causation between variables. Availability of longitudinal twin-parent data further strengthens our design.