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Performance of blood pressure to height ratio as a screening tool for elevated blood pressure in rural children: Ellisras Longitudinal Study

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 31, pages 591–595 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

There are complications in diagnosing hypertension in children and adolescents due to variation of blood pressure (BP) values to age, gender and height. This study was aimed at assessing whether the performance of BP-to-height ratio (BPHR) can be an effective tool for screening prehypertension and hypertension in Ellisras Longitudinal Study (ELS) children aged between 6 and 17 years. A number of the 9002 children aged 6–17 years who were part of the ELS underwent height and BP measurements using standard procedures. Receiver-operating characteristic curve was used to assess the accuracy of BPHR to screen children with prehypertension and hypertension. The optimal systolic BPHR (SBPHR) and diastolic BPHR (DBPHR) cut-off points for hypertension were determined. Sensitivity/specificity, positive predictive values and negative predictive values were calculated. The optimal thresholds for defining prehypertension was 0.77 in children aged 6–10 years and 0.73 in adolescents aged between 11 and 17 years for systolic BPHR and 0.55 in children and 0.53 in adolescents for diastolic BPHR, respectively. The corresponding values for hypertension stage 1 were 0.76 and 0.73 for SBPHR and 0.50 and 0.58 for DBPHR, respectively. BPHR can be used as an effective tool for screening both prehypertension and hypertension in ELS children aged 6–17 years.

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Acknowledgements

The financial support received from Vrije University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; University of Limpopo, South Africa; and the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa for the Ellisras Longitudinal Study is also acknowledged with gratitude. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and therefore the above-mentioned funding sources do not accept any liability in regard thereto. We are indebted to ELS administrators (Seleka PS, Makata TT, Makata W and Seleka S) for providing technical support in preparation of this manuscript. Malatji MJ and Monyeki MS (English educators of Makgoka high school) are thankfully acknowledged for editing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Environmental Health, University of Limpopo, Sovenga, South Africa

    M D Sekgala, K D Monyeki & N E Ramoshaba

  2. Department of Biochemistry, Sefako Makgatho Health Science University, Medunsa, South Africa

    M A Mogale

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  1. M D Sekgala
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  2. K D Monyeki
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  3. M A Mogale
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  4. N E Ramoshaba
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Correspondence to K D Monyeki.

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Sekgala, M., Monyeki, K., Mogale, M. et al. Performance of blood pressure to height ratio as a screening tool for elevated blood pressure in rural children: Ellisras Longitudinal Study. J Hum Hypertens 31, 591–595 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2017.25

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