All issues > Volume 32(8); 1989

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1989;32(8):1086-1092. Published online August 31, 1989.

A Study on Blood Pressure Measurements in School Children in Seoul Area.

Young Choi¹, Chang Youn Lee¹, Chung Il Noh¹, Chang Yee Hong¹, Sang Il Lee²

¹Department of Pediatrics, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
²Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Received: December 30, 1988;  Accepted: March 4, 1989.

Abstract

Blood pressure measurements were done in 9,346 school children in Seoul area in May, June and September, 1987. Korin BP 103N (automated oscillometric method) was used for blood pressure measurements. The results were as follows. 1) Blood pressure increased according to both increasing age and height. 2) Mean systolic pressure (MSP) increased from 100 mmHg at 6 to 124 mmHg at 18 years of age in boys. On the other hand, MSP increased from 100 mmHg at 6 to 114 mmHg at 18 years of age in girls. 3) At 12 years of age, the increment in systolic pressure was accelerated in both boys and girls. However, MSP in boys was about 10 mmHg higher than girls at 18 years of age due to slower rate of increase in systolic pressure in girls after 15 years of of age. Significantly higher MSP in boys than girls from 15 years of age could not be explained by the differences in the height only. 4) Mean diastolic pressure (MDP) increased from 53 mmHg to 65 mmHg at 18 years of age in boys. In girls, MDP increased from 53 mmHg at 6 to 62 mmHg at 18 years of age. MDP increased slowly without accelerated increase according to increasing age and height both in boys and girls. 5) Blood pressure values of 50, 90, 95 percentiles for each age and sex were also presented. With the above results, it is desirable that the above data are helpful for early detection of hypertension in childhood in Korea. Thereby it could be possible to prevent the possible complica- tions of essential hypertension in adult.

Keywords :Blood pressure, Age, Sex, Percentile