Blood pressure levels of Zambian rural adolescents and their relationship to age, sex, weight, height and three weight-for-height indices
Ng'andu, N.H.
International Journal of Epidemiology 21(2): 246-252
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0300-5771 PMID: 1428476 DOI: 10.1093/ije/21.2.246Document Number: 319119
A researcher used data on 372 7-16 year old children from 2 rural primary schools in Zambia collected between October 1986-June 1988 to learn blood pressure levels in health school age children and to see of an association between blood pressure and age, sex, height, and weight exists. Overall blood pressure increased gradually with age (p.05), but when the researcher controlled for growth, the association between age and blood pressure diminished. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) of girls either remained the same or were higher than those of boys which may be explained by hormonal and other changes during puberty. Age, height, and weight were the leading determinants of blood pressure (p.001). The Zambian children's mean SBP levels stood lower than those of Nigerian and US children of comparable age and those from children worldwide of comparable age, but DBP levels paralleled those of US and worldwide children. After the researcher adjusted for height, blood pressure was only significant with weight for length (p.05), but not with the other indices used to measure relative obesity (weight/height sq. and weight/height cubed). Thus these 2 other indices may not be applicable to studies on children. Further the nonsignificance of blood pressure with these other 2 indices may indicate limited obesity among these children.