Abstract

The study goals were to document the incidence of elevated blood pressure (BP) values in public high school students in Tulsa, Oklahoma; to determine whether age and sex are risk factors; and to encourage adolescents with abnormal screening BP values to seek medical care. Over a 2-year period, 5537 adolescents aged 14 to 19 years were evaluated by a mass screening method. Blood pressure was measured once between 8:30 and 9:30 AM, with the students seated. Korotkoff phases 1 and 5 were recorded as systolic and diastolic BP. According to the criteria of the Second Task Force on Hypertension in Children and Adolescents, 334 students had elevated BP values (either systolic, diastolic, or both) (an incidence of 6%). Boys had an incidence of elevated systolic BP of 5.8%, while girls had a 2.8% incidence, a difference that might have been expected because of the generally higher incidence among men in the adult population. The incidence of elevated diastolic BP was 2.8% in boys and 2.1% in girls. Statistically significant differences between boys and girls mean systolic and diastolic elevations were found, but were not considered clinically significant. An instructional mailing was done in an effort to stimulate follow-up medical care for those with abnormal findings, but its effect was not measured.