Prevalence of Hypertension and Prehypertension in Iranian Children

Background: Hypertension (HTN) is a significant public health problem worldwide. Early diagnosis of HTN and its related risk factors has been considered as one of the main requirements of general healthcare in children. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the nomograms of normal systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) and the prevalence of asymptomatic HTN and pre-HTN in a population of school-aged children. Methods: Systolic and diastolic BP, height, and weight were measured in 5811 healthy school-aged children (2904 males and 2907 females) during healthcare visits. HTN was defined as systolic or diastolic BP ≥ 95th percentile for age, gender, and height of the screened population on ≥ 3 occasions. Pre-HTN was considered as systolic or diastolic BP between 90 - 95 percentile. Results: HTN and pre-HTN were detected in 8.4% and 7.8% of the children, respectively. The prevalence of HTN was 8.6% among the males and 8.2% among the females. Systolic HTN and pre-HTN were detected in 5.8 and 6.4% of the cases compared to diastolic HTN and pre-HTN observed in 5.9 and 6.1% of the participants, respectively. In addition, HTN was detected in 27.9% of children with obesity. Conclusions: According to the high incidence of asymptomatic HTN and pre-HTN in asymptomatic children, it is recommended to perform routine BP measurement during medical care visits of all healthy school children and to prevent and treat obesity in childhood.