Woelk G
Department of Community Medicine, University of Zimbabwe, Harare.
Cent Afr J Med. 1994 Jun;40(6):163-9.
This paper reviews blood pressure tracking from childhood through adolescence, to adulthood. Blood pressure tracking correlations in childhood and adolescence vary from 0.2-0.6. Systolic blood pressure tracks better than diastolic pressure. There does not appear to be a gender difference, except that girls mature earlier than boys and so reach their adult blood pressure sooner. Tracking could be improved by increasing the number of observations per time period, thus reducing intrasubject variability. Various models, which do not assume linearity, have been developed to improve prediction. However, more studies with longer follow up periods need to be carried out to assess the importance of tracking as a screening tool. There is need also, for further studies in Africa, as the epidemiology of hypertension appears to be different in this setting. From the available data though, large scale screening programmes for children and adolescents are of little merit at this time.
本文回顾了从儿童期到青春期再到成年期的血压追踪情况。儿童期和青春期的血压追踪相关性在0.2至0.6之间。收缩压的追踪情况优于舒张压。除了女孩比男孩成熟更早，因此更早达到成人血压外，似乎不存在性别差异。通过增加每个时间段的观察次数可以改善追踪，从而减少个体内部的变异性。已经开发了各种不假定线性关系的模型来改善预测。然而，需要开展更多随访期更长的研究，以评估追踪作为一种筛查工具的重要性。由于高血压的流行病学在非洲这种情况下似乎有所不同，因此也需要在非洲开展进一步研究。不过，从现有数据来看，目前针对儿童和青少年的大规模筛查项目益处不大。
