[Arterial hypertension in students of the great São Paulo area]

In 1,000 students from Great São Paulo First Degree Schools, from 6 to 18 years old, we studied: age, sex, race, weight, height, left arm circumference, blood pressure, pulse and family history of hypertension. Of these 550 were female and 450 male, with predominance of caucasians in both sexes (83.7%). The conclusions of this study were: until 9 years old the blood pressure was similar in both sexes. As the school girls grow up earlier, their blood pressure rose first, but after 16 years this fact changed: 126 +/- 3.5 x 76 +/- 2.8 in males and 115 +/- 2.0 x 74 +/- 1.9 in females. Students with a family history of hypertension had higher blood pressure than students without and the prevalence of systolic and diastolic hypertension was higher in the first group: 12.2 and 13.8 to 4.7 and 3.8% respectively. Diastolic blood pressure was dominant in only in males Negros. The prevalence of systolic and diastolic hypertension was 6.9% in these 1,000 students.