RESUMO
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Very few studies have been published on the incidence of hypertension in childhood and adolescence, in particular in the doctor's office. METHOD: In view of this, the Lehrauftrag Allgemeinmedizin at the University of Heidelberg carried out a study in the Northern part of the German State of Baden-Württemberg involving 21 general practices and 410 children aged between 4 and 18 years. In addition to a questionnaire covering personal, social and family data, the systolic and diastolic blood pressures were determined by automatic oscillometric measurement, and also using a mercury sphygmomanometer. RESULTS: Hypertension was found in 2.93% of the children examined. At the time of diagnosis, half of all the children were suffering from some acute disease; however, more than 40% were discovered "by accident". Interesting relationships were found between hypertension, body weight, nicotine and alcohol abuse, sporting activities and family data, which, however, owing to the small number of subjects, were not amenable to more detailed analysis.
