Anthropometric indicators associated with high blood pressure in children living in urban and rural areas.
Gisele Nepomuceno de Andrade, Leonardo Ferreira Matoso, Jhon Wesley Bragança Miranda and 3 others
PMID 31038641WHAT IT FOUND
Elevated BP was more common in rural children (18.8%) than urban children (10.6%).
High BMI in urban children and high waist circumference in rural children were associated with it, so use them to flag children for BP checks, not diagnosis.
Key findings
01Elevated BP was found in 13.7% of children overall, and it was more common in rural children (18.8%) than urban children (10.6%).
02After adjustment, high BMI was associated with elevated BP in urban children, while age and high waist circumference remained independently associated in rural children.
03Rural children had higher systolic BP values than urban children.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Blood pressure was measured on a single occasion, using the mean of three readings, so some children could have been classified as having elevated BP incorrectly. High waist circumference was defined using a North American reference because Brazilian patterns were not available, so the cut-off may not fit this population. The study was done in two public schools, one urban and one rural, so it does not show what would happen in other settings. The study measured children at one time, so it cannot show that BMI, waist circumference, age, or rural residence caused elevated BP.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read elevated BP in this study as a hypertension diagnosis. Blood pressure was measured on one occasion, and the paper states that pediatric hypertension requires systolic or diastolic BP greater than the 95th percentile in at least three different measurement periods.