How do blood pressure measurements in healthy black children compare to those of white children reported in the literature?
Healthy black children have similar systolic but lower diastolic blood pressure compared to white children, though a small subset exhibits elevated blood pressure requiring monitoring.
Blood pressure measurements were obtained under office conditions by auscultatory method, using appropriate cuff sizes, in 1,668 healthy black children (827 boys and 841 girls) ranging in age from 4 to 17 years. We found no significant difference between the mean systolic blood pressure of black children in our study and that of whites as reported in the literature. However, mean diastolic blood pressure was lower in black children. Some black children (3.6%) were found to have blood pressure more than 2 standard deviations above the mean for their age and should be closely observed for developing hypertensive cardiovascular changes.
Shiv K. Dube (Wed,) studied this question.