Effect of elevated blood pressure on quality of life in children with chronic kidney disease

Background: Although hypertension is known to have an adverse impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in adults, little is known about the effects of hypertension and use of antihypertensive medications on HRQoL in hypertensive children with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: Cross-sectional and longitudinal assessment of impact of elevated blood pressure (BP) and antihypertensive medication use on HRQoL scores obtained in children enrolled in the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children (CKiD) Study. Blood pressure was measured both manually and by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. HRQoL was assessed with the PedsQL survey. Results: The study sample included 551 participants with sufficient data for cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Cross-sectional analysis of presence of prehypertension or hypertension and impact on HRQoL found mild associations between elevated BP and HRQoL scores with overall PedsQL parent and child scores averaging 79 vs. 76.5 and 83 vs. 78.5, respectively. However, no associations persisted under longitudinal multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Despite apparent small effects of elevated BP on HRQoL at baseline, no association was found between the presence of elevated BP and HRQoL over time in children with mild-to-moderate CKD. In addition, antihypertensive medication use did not appear to have an impact on HRQoL in this population.