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Blood pressure levels in 7 to 14-year-old Belgrade children

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 17, pages 761–765 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

The objective of the work was to study blood pressure and some anthropometric characteristics in children. The study design included the prevalence study at Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro. The study comprised 1651 subjects (809 boys and 842 girls) aged 7–14 years, that is, 2.6% of all relevant population. The average levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressures (SBP and DBP) were 113.4/70.3 mmHg in boys and 114.6/71.1 mmHg in girls. High SBP was present in 4.7% of boys and in 5.3% of girls. High DBP was found in 5.6% of boys and in 4.8% of girls. According to multivariate regression analysis, in boys SBP and DBP were significantly associated with age, body mass index (BMI) and subscapular skinfold, SBP was also associated with body weight, and DBP with triceps skinfold. In girls, SBP was significantly related to BMI, suprailiac skinfold and body height, and DBP was significantly associated with BMI, suprailiac and subscapular skinfolds. The results of the present study support the opinion that BMI is a significant predictor of blood pressure in children and point out to suprailiac skinfold in girls as a possible predictor of blood pressure.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Development of Serbia through contract No. 8774, 1996–2000.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Epidemiology, School of Medicine, Belgrade University, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro

    H Vlajinac, B Adanja & S Šipetić

  2. Institute of Public Health of Serbia, Belgrade

    D Miljuš

  3. Institute for Social Medicine, Statistics and Health Research, School of Medicine, Belgrade University, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro

    J Marinković & N Kocev

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  1. H Vlajinac
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  2. D Miljuš
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  4. J Marinković
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  5. S Šipetić
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  6. N Kocev
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Correspondence to H Vlajinac.

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Vlajinac, H., Miljuš, D., Adanja, B. et al. Blood pressure levels in 7 to 14-year-old Belgrade children. J Hum Hypertens 17, 761–765 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1001618

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