Blood pressure in Canadian children and adolescents

Because blood pressure (BP) tracks from childhood to adulthood, assessing levels in youth is relevant. There are no recent BP data for Canadian children and adolescents, and past studies have used a variety of design and measurement devices.

With a clinically validated oscillometric device, resting BP was measured in 2,079 respondents aged 6 to 19 years from the Canadian Health Measures Survey. The average of the last five of six BP measures taken one minute apart at a single visit was used in this report. Borderline or elevated BP was defined as greater than or equal to the 90th percentile of US reference values for participants aged 6 to 17 years. Borderline or elevated BP for 18- to 19-year-olds was defined as equal to or greater than 120 systolic BP or equal to or greater than 80 diastolic BP. Participants of any age who reported taking antihypertensive medication in the past month were also defined as having elevated BP.

At ages 6 to 11 years, mean (standard error) systolic/diastolic blood pressure was 93(0)/61(1) in boys and 93(0)/60(0) mmHg in girls, and at ages 12 to 19 years, 101(1)/63(1) and 98(1)/63(1) mmHg, respectively. An estimated 2.1% (95% confidence interval 1.3% to 3.0%) of Canadian children and youth had borderline levels; 0.8% (0.4% to 1.4%) had elevated BP.

Despite the prevalence of obesity among young people, BP levels were lower than reported in provincial samples, which may, in part, reflect differences in methodologies and measurement instruments.