Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Parvin Jafarpour ¹
• Fatemeh Mohseni Moghadam ²
• Parvin Aghamohamad Hasani ³
• Fariba Taleghani ⁴
• Seyed Habib Hosseini ²

¹ Faculty Member, Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and midwifery, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran

² Faculty Member, Department of Basic Sciences, School of Nursing and midwifery, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran

³ Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran

⁴ Associate Professor, Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Regular determination of blood pressure is very important in children, since early diagnosis of hypertension may reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This study was conducted to determine the frequency of hypertension among 7-12 year-old children in Rafsanjan during 2007.
   METHODS: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 2370 male and female school-age children (7-12 years old) were included using multistage sampling method. Their height and blood pressure were measured by a standard meter tape and a sphygmomanometer. The criteria of the American Society of Heart, Lung, and Blood were used for definition of hypertension. The collected data was analyzed by chi-square test and analysis of variance in SPSS₁₇.
   RESULTS: The prevalence of hypertension among the studied children was 3.5%. There was a relationship between age and the rates of high systolic and diastolic pressure in both genders. The prevalence of hypertension among male and female subjects was 1.8% and 5.2%, respectively. The highest level of hypertension was among 12 year-old children. Moreover, 2.5% of boys and 5.1% of girls had interstitial blood pressure.
   CONCLUSION: The frequency of interstitial blood pressure and hypertension in our participants was apparently lower than the rates reported by similar studies. This difference is might have been caused by utilizing the new and more accurate criteria determined by the American Society of Heart, Lung, and Hypertension in the present research.