Blood Pressure Differences between Blacks and Whites in Relation to Body Size among US Children and Adolescents

• Published in: American journal of epidemiology 2000-05, Vol.151 (10), p.1007-1019
• Main Authors: Rosner, Bernard, Prineas, Ronald, Daniels, Stephen R., Loggie, Jennifer
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Arterial hypertension. Arterial hypotension; Biological and medical sciences; Black or African American; Black People - genetics; Blood and lymphatic vessels; blood pressure; Blood Pressure - genetics; Body Constitution - genetics; body mass index; Cardiology. Vascular system; Child; Clinical manifestations. Epidemiology. Investigative techniques. Etiology; Diastole; ethnic groups; Female; Health Surveys; Humans; hypertension; Hypertension - diagnosis; Hypertension - epidemiology; Hypertension - genetics; Logistic Models; Male; Medical sciences; Obesity - complications; Prevalence; Risk Factors; Systole; United States - epidemiology; White People - genetics
• ISSN: 0002-9262; 1476-6256
• DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a010129

No large national studies of ethnic differences in blood pressure among children accounting for body size differences have been published, to the author's knowledge. This report details the similarities and differences in systolic and diastolic blood pressures betweenn Black children and White children in the United States and examines the effects of age, sex, and body size on ethnic differences in blood pressure levels. Standardized measurements of seated systolic and diastolic pressures from eight large epidemiologic studies published between 1978 and 1991 that included measurements of 47, 196 children on 68, 556 occasions for systolic pressure and for 38, 184 children on 52, 053 occasions for diastolic pressure were used; 51 percent (24, 048 children) were boys and 37 percent (17, 466 children) were Black. Overall, there appear to be few substantive ethnic differences in either systolic or diastolic pressure during childhood and adolescence. The differences that were observed were small, inconsistent, and often expalained by differences in body size. There was an ethnic group-body mass index (BMI) interaction that resulted in these findings that at lower levels of BMI Blacks have higher blood pressure and more hypertension than do Whites, but that at the highest levels of BMI, Whites have more hypertension (systolic or diastolic pressure) than do Blacks. Am J Epidemiol 2000: 151: 1007-19.