Ocular Signs Related to Overweight and Arterial Hypertension in Children: A Systematic Review

The ocular effects of obesity and hypertension need to be established and can be used as prognostic markers.

To estimate the prevalence of ophthalmological alterations in children and adolescents who are overweight and/or have SAH.

The database for this study included all observational studies (CS, cohort, case-control and “baseline” description of randomized clinical trials) with children and/or adolescents who were overweight, obese or had SAH and that measured ophthalmological alterations.

Comparative studies with healthy children demonstrated positive association between body adiposity with retinal venular dilation, and SAH with retinal arteriolar narrowing. Different retinal fundus cameras and computer-assisted programs to evaluate the retinal vessels, variations in the methods of analysis, adjustments, populations, were the main arguments against formal meta-analysis. The heterogeneity was too high (I² >90%, in fixed or randomized effects), and the lack of linearity, normal distribution and homoscedasticity did not recommend meta-regression.

Obesity and SAH show associations with ophthalmological alterations, especially with retinal vessel diameter. Lack of standardization does not allow a quantitative evaluation.