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Blood Pressure-to-Height Ratio as a Screening Tool for Hypertension in Children
Asif Ahmed1, Syed Wajid Ali, Shariq Massodi
1Departments of Pediatrics and Endocrinology, Sher-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, JK, India. Corresponding to: Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat, Department of Pediatrics, Sher-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, Kashmir, JK, India. mbhat47@rediffmail.com.
Objective:
To test whether blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) can be used to screen for hypertension in children.
Methods:
Data regarding blood pressure and other variables was recorded for 2702 school children between the ages of 10-16 years as a part of a nutritional survey.
Results:
The optimal thresholds for defining hypertension in boys were 0.76 for systolic BPHR and 0.50 for diastolic BPHR; the respective threshold in girls were 0.80 and 0.52.
Conclusion:
BPHR can be used as an effective screening test for diagnosing both hypertension and prehypertension in children aged 10-16 years.
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