Obese girls have greater risk of being diagnosed with high blood pressure (BP) than boys, a new study conducted by University of California researchers revealed.

Researchers studied a total of 1,700 teenage girls and boys, and found that obese boys were 3.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with increased systolic blood pressure (SBP) than non-obese boys, but obese girls were found to be 9 times more likely to suffer from elevated SBP than the non-obese girls.

Presented at the American Physiological Society conference, the study also revealed that obese girls are more at risk than obese boys as they engage in less physical activity than boys.

Speaking on the topic, lead researcher Dr. Rudy Ortiz said, “Obese adolescent females participate in 50 to 60% less physical activity than boys in the population surveyed.”

Dr. Ortiz added that those who develop both higher BMI and blood pressure in adolescence would more likely to succumb to cardiovascular complications in their adulthoods.

According to a study conducted by CDC in 2007, around 12.5 million children and adolescents aged between 2 to 19 are obese, and an estimated 3 per cent of children have high blood pressure.