Tracking of blood pressure from childhood to adolescence in a Greek cohort

• Published in: European journal of public health 2012-06, Vol.22 (3), p.389-393
• Main Authors: Kollias, Anastasios, Pantsiotou, Kyratsoula, Karpettas, Nikolaos, Roussias, Leonidas, Stergiou, George S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age Factors; Blood Pressure; Body mass index; Body Weights and Measures; Child; Child development; Child, Preschool; Childrens health; Cohort Studies; Female; Greece - epidemiology; Health Surveys; Humans; Hypertension; Hypertension - epidemiology; Male; Regression analysis; Sex Factors
• ISSN: 1101-1262; 1464-360X
• DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckr082

Studies have reported tracking of blood pressure (BP) from childhood to adulthood but with inconsistent results mainly due to methodological and ethnic differences. We aimed to examine BP tracking during a 7-year period in a Greek cohort. This is a longitudinal school-based study conducted during 1990-96 in Athens, Greece. Children underwent BP and anthropometric measurements on two to three visits annually (averaged to annual values) for 7 years. A total of 166 children with complete yearly follow-up data for the examined period were included (mean baseline age 9 ± 1.7 years, range: 5-12 years, 89 boys). At baseline, the prevalence of pre- and hypertension was 22.9 and 24.1% respectively and at the end of the follow-up 24.1% (P = NS vs. baseline) and 13.3% (P = 0.02 vs. baseline) respectively. Systolic/diastolic BP tracking correlation coefficients between 1990 and 1996 were 0.38 (P