title: Blood pressure screening in school-aged children in Tehran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hypertension is one of the most common diseases in the world and a major risk factor for cardiovascular, renal, and neurologic diseases. It seems that hypertension and overweight in children are a growing epidemic. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of hypertension in school-aged children in Tehran.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a cross-sectional study, blood pressure and anthropometric measurements were performed on school-aged children in Tehran from 2008 to 2009. Children aged 7 to 11 years from 5 public schools in Tehran were included. Blood pressure, weight, and height measurement were performed at the school. At each screening, 3 seated blood pressure, weight, and height measurements were made and at least after 3 minutes of rest and choosing proper cuff, blood pressure was measured by a pediatric nephrologist and a pediatric assistant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 425 school-aged children were included. Twenty-four percent of the primary school children had hypertension and 12% were shown to be overweight. Hypertension was more common in students of the north of Tehran in comparison to other geographic parts of Tehran. There was a significant difference in the prevalence of hypertension between girl students of north of Tehran and girls of the other parts of Tehran.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We concluded that hypertension is a common problem in school-aged children. Our study re-emphasized the need for prevention and control of high blood pressure in children to manage the global diseases burden due to hypertension.
authors: Pediatric Infectious Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. mohkam@pirc.ir
authors: Masoumeh
authors: M
authors: Mohkam
authors: Abdollah
authors: A
authors: Karimi
authors: Narges
authors: N
authors: Eslami
authors: Alireza
authors: A
authors: Khatami
authors: Fatemeh
authors: F
authors: Fallah
authors: Saiid
authors: S
authors: Maham
authors: Farzaneh
authors: F
authors: Jadali
authors: Fatemeh
authors: F
authors: Abdollah Gorji
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000886:Anthropometry; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D015995:Prevalence; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012572:School Health Services; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014505:Urban Population