title: A 24-year follow-up study of blood pressure tracking from childhood to adulthood in Korea: the Kangwha Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A number of longitudinal studies have tracked blood pressure over time in children and adults. Although there are a few blood pressure tracking studies for Asian populations, they are all relatively short-term studies with around only 10 years of follow-up. Accordingly, we assessed the stability of blood pressure tracking from childhood to adulthood over a 24-year follow-up period among participants in the Kangwha Study.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Kangwha Study was a community- based prospective cohort study that started in 1986 in Kangwha County, South Korea. The study dataset included 14 blood pressure measurements over a 24-year period from 266 (123 male and 143 female) participants who completed the 2010 examination. All participants were 7 years old when the study began and were followed for the next 24 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The tracking coefficient (95% confidence interval) for systolic blood pressure was 0.81 (0.52-1.11) in men and 0.72 (0.51-0.92) in women; diastolic blood pressure was 0.53 (0.26-0.80) in men and 0.33 (0.15-0.52) in women. After adjusting for body mass index, the tracking coefficient for systolic blood pressure was 0.68 (0.39-0.97) in men and 0.67 (0.44-0.89) in women; diastolic blood pressure was 0.51 (0.24-0.78) in men and 0.33 (0.15-0.51) in women. All tracking coefficients were statistically significant (p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this 24-year longitudinal study, we confirmed the stability of blood pressure tracking from childhood to adulthood for participants in the Kangwha Study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50-1 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-752, Korea. isuh@yuhs.ac.
authors.forename: Myung Ha
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Dae Ryong
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Hyeon Chang
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Song Vogue
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Kay-Tee
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Khaw
authors.forename: Il
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Suh
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D056910:Republic of Korea; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Blood pressure; longitudinal study; tracking