Longitudinal Blood Pressures in Blacks, Whites, and Mexican Americans During Adolescence and Early Adulthood

This study, designed to assess the extent blood pressure distributions become divergent between blacks, whites, and Mexican Americans during adolescence and early adulthood, is a mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal survey of blood pressures of adolescents in Dallas, Texas. The initial survey was performed on 10,641 eighth grade students in 1976 comprising 92% of the eighth grade population. This population was resurveyed two and four years later. Systolic blood pressures were consistently higher in males than females; diastolic pressures were higher in males after age 15. Between 13 and 18 years, black males had systolic and diastolic pressures that were lower or the same as those of whites and Mexican Americans. At these ages, black males and white males were of similar stature and weight. Black females had systolic pressures that were slightly higher than those of whites and Mexican Americans, whereas diastolic pressures among females showed no consistent ethnic differences. Black females were significantly heavier than either the white or Mexican-American females. The distribution of blood pressure from Dallas youths were consistently lower over all age-ethnic-sex groups than that reported from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Task Force on Blood Pressure Control in Children. The results of this longitudinal study indicate that no substantial ethnic differences in blood pressures developed between blacks, whites, and Mexican Americans prior to 20 years of age.