Evaluation of Sustained Blood Pressure Elevation in Children.

OBJECTIVES:To document the prevalence and etiology of sustained blood pressure elevation in children.METHODS & RESULTS:It is a school-based prospective cross-sectional study involving healthy school children in age group of 5-15 years (both sexes). Children with any acute or chronic illnesses and the intersexes were excluded from the study group. Total number of hypertensive children were 37. Of these 37 cases, 23 hypertensive cases were boys and 14 were girls. All these hypertensive children maintained their blood pressure above +2SD for the corresponding age and sex. Male and female ratio of hypertensive cases was 62:38. All were primary hypertensives as per working definition. Majority belonged to Class II socio-economic status.CONCLUSION:Hypertension in children is very rare with a prevalence of 0.38% and majority had primary hypertension.