Abstract
Background: There is a lack of data on the prevalence of pre-high blood pressure (PreHBP) and high blood pressure (HBP), based on recent international blood pressure references, in non-overweight children and adolescents.
Aim: To describe the prevalence of PreHBP and HBP in non-overweight children and adolescents in developed regions of China.
Subjects and methods: In total, 588 097 non-overweight children and adolescents aged 6–17 years from the National Surveys on Chinese Students’ Constitution and Health in 2015 were included.
Results: The prevalence of PreHBP was 13.41% and subjects in urban areas had a higher prevalence of PreHBP (14.14%) than those in rural areas (12.92%). Subjects in regions with a high (13.56%) or moderate (13.61%) socioeconomic status showed a higher prevalence of PreHBP than those in regions with a relatively low socioeconomic status (12.76%). A similar pattern was found for the prevalence of HBP, and the prevalence of HBP was 18.25% for all participants, 20.55% for subjects in urban areas, 16.71% in rural areas, 18.76% in high socioeconomic areas, 18.62% in moderate socioeconomic areas and 16.70% in relatively low socioeconomic areas.
Conclusion: A large proportion of non-overweight children and adolescents had elevated blood pressure and there were urban–rural and socioeconomic disparities in the prevalence of elevated blood pressure.
Acknowledgements
We thank all the team members and all participants.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.