Why the study?
Are pediatricians following guidelines for measuring and managing blood pressure in children aged 3 to 18 years during well-child visits?
Cross-Sectional (n=805)
Yes
Are pediatricians following guidelines for measuring and managing blood pressure in children aged 3 to 18 years during well-child visits?
Despite high rates of blood pressure screening during pediatric well-child visits, elevated readings are frequently unrecognized and unmanaged, particularly when physician patient loads are high.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Missed interventions for elevated pediatric BP were tied to higher patient loads; hypothesis-generating for workload-targeted quality initiatives.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends that children older than 3 years seen in the medical setting have their blood pressure (BP) measured. The authors aimed to determine whether BPs are measured at well-child visits and whether elevated readings are recognized. A retrospective chart review of 3- to 18-year-old children seen for well-child visits was performed. Age, sex, weight, height, BP, extremity measured, and type of intervention were collected. BP was measured in 777 of 805 patients (97%). BP was elevated in 158 patients (20%). A total of 95 patients (60%) did not receive any intervention. Not recognizing elevated BP was associated with increased daily patient load (17.9±6.5 vs 12.6±5.5, P=.001). Higher body mass index was associated with elevated BP (P=.0008) but was not associated with improved recognition. Findings show that BP is almost always measured at well-child visits but is not being measured appropriately, and general pediatric clinics are not consistently following BP management recommendations.
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Patel et al. (2016) conducted a cross-sectional in Pediatric Hypertension (n=805). Well-child visit blood pressure screening was evaluated on Proportion of patients with elevated blood pressure who did not receive any intervention.
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