Abstract:

Objective: The prevalence of hypertension in childhood and adolescence is gradually increasing. We aimed to in­vestigate the blood pressure (BP) values of children aged 7-18 years. Methods: This study was conducted in a total of 3375 (1777 females, 1598 males) children from 27 schools. Blood pressures of children were measured using sphyg­momanometer appropriate to arm circumference. Results: A positive relationship was found between sys­tolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and the body weight, height, age and body mass index (BMI) in male and female children. SBP was high­er in males than females after the age of 13. DBP was higher in males than the females after the age of 14. The mean annual increase of SBP was 2.06 mmHg in males and 1.54 mmHg in females. The mean annual increase of DBP was 1.52 mmHg in males and 1.38 mmHg in fe­males. Conclusion: In this study, we identified the threshold val­ues for blood pressure in children between the age of 7 and 18 years in Erzurum province. It is necessary to com­bine and evaluate data obtained from various regions for the identification of BP percentiles according to the age, gender and height percentiles of Turkish children.

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