Testing the value of simple arterial blood pressure measurements in a Greek children’s hospital

• 作者: Chara Tzavara Evangelia Lagona Ioannis Elefsiniotis Konstantina Giamaiou Konstantinos Tsoumakas Vasiliki Matziou
• 来源期刊: 儿科学期刊(英文)
• 学科: 医学
• 关键词: Children HYPERTENSION BLOOD Pressure Screening Community AWARENESS
• 年，卷（期）: 2013,（2）
• 页码范围: 108-115
• 页数: 8页
• 分类号: R5

摘要

Arterial hypertension begins in childhood and may continue, without intervention, throughout adulthood with severe health sequelae.The base of timely diagnosis is the systematic blood pressure (BP) measurement. Background: The study aims at revealing the level of parental and community awareness and testing the value of a simple measurement in uncovering children who need further assessment when performing an in-hospital BP screening. Methods: BP was measured in 600 children (0 - 17 yr, mean age 5.1 ± 4.3 yr) at a Children’s hospital. Parents were asked to fill in a specially structured questionnaire. Results: In 47.2% of the subjects (40.1% of them were Greeks and 60.6% foreigners), BP had never been checked before (p arterial BP had never been checked before. Surprisingly, a health certificate was issued for school purposes for 81.2% of the schoolchildren of this study, and 75.3% of the enrolled children were allowed to participate in sports clubs without first checking BP. Moreover, parents demonstrated a low level of alertness with respect to paediatric hypertension. Conclusions: Simple arterial BP measurements can ensure early detection and thus early referral to specialists.