Table 1 Characteristics of the study population stratified by BP categories.

	Normotensive n = 662	Incident Hypertension n = 381	p-value
Demographics
Sex, girls, n (%)	367 (64.7)	200 (35.3)	0.358
Age, years^a	7.40. ± 0.95	7.50 ± 0.86	0.070
Black ethnicity, n (%)	367 (63.3)	213 (36.7)	0.884
Socioeconomic status score	5.68 (2.65)	5.90 (2.60)	0.271
Anthropometric measures
Body height, cm^a	122.41 ± 7.78	124.01 ± 7.91	0.002
Body weight, kg^a	24.01 (5.75)	26.69 (7.32)	<0.001
Body mass index z-score^a	−0.16 ± 1.12	0.36 ± 1.13	<0.001
Cardiovascular measures
Systolic blood pressure, mmHg^b	97 ± 7	111 ± 8	<0.001
Diastolic blood pressure, mmHg^b	61 ± 5	70 ± 7	<0.001
Mean arterial pressure, mmHg^b	76 ± 5	87 ± 6	<0.001
Heart rate, bpm^b	86 ± 11	89 ± 12	<0.001
Pulse wave velocity, m/s^c	4.38 ± 0.29	4.59 ± 0.32	<0.001
Central retinal artery equivalent, MU^d	201 ± 15.08	197 ± 14.34	<0.001
Central retinal vein equivalent, MU^d	236 ± 16.28	236 ± 15.80	0.688
Arterial vein ratio^d	0.86 ± 0.06	0.84 ± 0.06	<0.001
Cardiorespiratory fitness (stages)^e	3.287 (1.64)	3.422 (1.47)	0.292
Food intake frequency per week
Fruits	1 (3,5)	1 (3,5)	0.935
Vegetables	1 (3,5)	1 (3,5)	0.154
Meat	3 (5,7)	3 (5,7)	0.287
Milk	1 (5,7)	1 (5,7)	0.249
Cold drinks	1 (5,7)	1 (4,7)	0.506
Sugar tea	1 (3,7)	1 (3,7)	0.588
Cookies/cakes	1 (1,3)	1 (1,3)	0.783
Chips	1 (3,5)	1 (3,5)	0.530
Sweets	1 (3,5)	1 (3,5)	0.457
Fast foods	1 (1,3)	1 (1,3)	0.356
Sugar teaspoons	0 (2,2)	1 (2,2)	0.849

Sample sizes: a = 1043; b = 1040; c = 998; d = 930; e = 646.
P trend values were obtained with the Chi-square test and the Independent T-test. Mean ± SD was given with the p-trend and p-values of the t-test for Equality of Means. For food intake data, percentile ranges: 50th (20th; 80th) obtained from frequency categories of consumption per week. p-values represent comparisons of mean sum ranks between normotensive and incident hypertension groups, using the Mann–Whitney U test for non-parametric independent samples. ANCOVA was used to compare BP with an adjustment applied for body height, sex, and ethnicity, and PWV was additionally adjusted for MAP and HR.

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