[Blood pressure reference values on height for 6-12 years old children in Shiraz/Iran]

ABSTRACT

Blood pressure [BP] in children could be affected by a lot of factors such as environmental, cultural, social and genetic factors. Therefore it is dynamic and varies from each society or era to another. This study was conducted to compare BP of Iranian children with the American standard and for the first time BP smoothed centiles on height in 6-12 elementary school children were determined. Height, systolic and diastolic BP were measured with standard methods in 2494 elementary school children selected by multi stage sampling. BP percentiles on height percentiles were determined and compared with National High Blood Pressure Education Program [NHBPEP] results by using its suggested regression equation. Meanwhile BP smoothed centiles on height were drawn by Healy-Rasbash-Yang [HRY] method. The results of this study showed that BP levels in Shiraz children are lower than American standard and BP in children was not related to age by controlling of height. It is suggested that in each society local standards are used and in order to have more accurate diagnosis of hypertensive cases it would be better to calculate BP centiles on height instead of age