Blood Pressure Distribution in Indian Children.
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Date
2010-06
Journal Title
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Abstract
Objective: To determine blood pressure distribution in
schoolchildren and to derive population specific reference
values appropriate for age, gender and height status.
Design: Cross sectional observational study.
Setting: Schools in Ernakulam district, Kerala, India,
during 2005-06.
Methods: Stratified random cluster sampling method was
used to select the children. Blood pressure and
anthropometric data were collected from 20,263 students
of 5-16 years age. Three readings of blood pressures of
each child were taken by mercury sphygmomanometer
and mean was taken for analysis. Blood pressure
percentiles in relation to gender, age and height were
estimated from a non-overweight population of 18,931
children using polynomial regression models.
Results: Children from study population have higher
diastolic pressures for both sexes than international
standard across all age groups. For systolic blood
pressure, girls showed higher values than the international
standard while for boys, the difference appears to be
minimal.
Conclusions: Blood pressure distribution in children from
our study population demonstrates a different pattern in
comparison to existing international reference. Higher
blood pressure values in the study population are of
considerable public health significance.
Description
Keywords
Adolescents, Blood pressure, India, Obesity, Overweight
Citation
Raj Manu, Sundaram Karimassery Ramaiyer, Paul Mary, Kumar Raman Krishna. Blood Pressure Distribution in Indian Children. Indian Pediatrics. 2010 June; 47(6): 477-485.