Blood Pressure Variations and the Related Variables in Primary School Childeren Studied in Tehran from 1980- 82.

The Literature review indicates that the high blood pressure has a different prevalence in various population of Iran and in the age group of 35 and above the rate varies from 7% in Qushguai tribe to 30% in Teheran and Anzali. The purpose of this study is to know whether the essential hypertension begins at the early age of life; and also to standardizing the normal value of blood pressure in children with population based study in any distinct community. In order to achieve these points of view, this study was undertaken in the primary school children of Teheran on the basis of three stage cluster stratified random sampling (region-school-student) and 4154 students (2188 boys and 1957 girls) with the age of 7 to 11 years old were selected. A questionnaire was compiled for the data concerning biologic and socioeconomic status, complete clinical examination and three times measurement of blood pressure for each student. The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure (phase IV and V) and the maximum normal values above 95 percentile were determined for any age group. The maximum normal values were from 121 to 126 mmHg for systolic blood pressure; from 78 to 83 mmHg for diastolic blood pressure phase IV and 71 to 75 mmHg for diastolic blood pressure phase V. The prevalence of above 95 percentile was 10% if at least one of the blood pressure levels had higher than the normal values. The mean blood pressure in girls was relatively higher than in boys and this might be due to the thicker skinfold in girls. Finally the partial correlation between blood pressure and different variables (age, weight, height, pondoral index, body mass index, pulse rate, skinfold thickness, family size etc.) indicates that these parameters had the significant relation with the blood pressure levels.