The Minneapolis childrn's blood pressure study. Part 2: multiple determinants of children's blood pressure.

Among 9977 public school children aged 6 to 9 years screened in late winter and spring of 1978 in Minnesota, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic fourth phase blood pressure (DBP4) were found to be unrelated to age when height and body mass index (kg/m2) were taken into account. Weight was the best single measure of body size for predicing blood pressure. Black and white children had small and inconsistent, although statistically significant, differences in blood pressure after adjusting for other variables. The same was true for boys and girls. The problems of establishing normal blood pressures for children are discussed. The current analyses suggest the use of blood pressure centiles by height.