Tracking of blood pressure during childhood

Lee, Soon Young; Seo, Il; Nam, Jeung Mo

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find the tracking blood pressure in primary school-age children. A follow-up study was conducted from 1986 to 1990 on 330 first grade children attending primary schools in Kangwha County, Kyungki-Do. Basically we employed a linear regression model with random coefficients to figure out the relation between blood pressure changes and initial blood pressure. We obtained the following results; 1. The mean blood pressures were increased grade went up in both sexs and were generally higher in female than male except for the systolic blood pressure at first grade. The size of difference was about 0.8 mmHg in mean systolic blood pressure and 1.5 mmHg in mean diastolic blood pressure. 2. The average annual increasing rates of systolic blood pressure were 2.5 mmHg in male and 3.1 mmHg in female respectively. For the diastolic blood pressure IV the average annual increasing rates were observed to be 3.0 mmHg in male and 2.9 mmHg in female respectively. Increasing rate of systolic blood pressure was significantly higher in female than male. 3. The adjusted regression coefficient of systolic blood pressure change on initial value was -0.11 in male and -0.13 in female and that coefficient of diastolic blood pressure change on initial value was -0.01 in male and -0.11 in female. This result shows that children with higher initial blood pressure do not pick up their blood pressure faster than others with lower initial blood pressure. There is no evidence of tracking of blood pressure in children. It is essential to find the earliest age having the tracking of blood pressure and we leave it for the further study.