![]() | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract One of the most prevalent risk factors for cardiovascular disease, a leading global cause of disability and untimely death, is high blood pressure. Once thought to be a rare disease in children, hypertension or high blood pressure is now recognized as a significant global public health issue. Hypertension is linked to an increased risk of target organ damage. As a result, blood pressure measurement is thought to be a crucial component of the clinical examination. The Task Force on Blood Pressure Control in Children in the United States released several reports on blood pressure levels related to age, height, and weight from birth to 18 years old in order to establish a standard for blood pressure in children. Racial and ethnic groups exhibit differences in the distribution of blood pressure levels and the prevalence of hypertension. Reference standards created for a specific population might not be applicable to others due to these variances. Therefore, in order to assess the observed blood pressure values, local reference data are crucial. Since height (stature) is a more accurate indicator of body size and maturation—the two main factors influencing the natural rise in blood pressure that occurs during childhood—it is a better primary reference metric than age. Our study’s goals were to determine the blood pressure threshold percentiles of Egyptian children and adolescents and to compare them with blood pressure reference from American children. This study was part of Z- Score of Growth Parameters and Blood Pressure for Egyptian Children (0–19 Years). We used the previous studies that conducted in Egypt as the source for all threshold values in this study. The Menoufia Faculty of Medicine’s local Institutional Review Boards (IRB) approved the study (190118; Ped), but since no subjects were needed for the analysis, informed consent was not required because it had already been obtained. A subsample chosen from the original main sample, cross-sectional randomized study from December 2015 to March 2017, was used for the current investigation. To create a blood pressure to height chart, as advised by the Fourth Report, only children older than three were included and charts specifically for boys and girls were made resulting in a final sample size of 45,959 (24,543 boys & 21,416). A digital balanced scale (Beurer model GS 11, Germany) was used to measure weight, and a fixed stadiometer from Harpenden was used to measure height. All measurements of blood pressure were performed using standard mercury sphygmomanometers (Model 1002/Presameter, Riester, Germany) with various cuff sizes. Every day, all devices were calibrated. |