Blood Pressure-to-Height Ratio as a Screening Tool for Hypertension in Children.

OBJECTIVE: To test whether blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) can be used to screen for hypertension in children. METHODS: Data regarding blood pressure and other variables was recorded for 2702 school children between the ages of 10-16 years as a part of a nutritional survey. RESULTS: The optimal thresholds for defining hypertension in boys were 0.76 for systolic BPHR and 0.50 for diastolic BPHR; the respective threshold in girls were 0.80 and 0.52. CONCLUSION: BPHR can be used as an effective screening test for diagnosing both hypertension and prehypertension in children aged 10-16 years.