title: Prevalence of hypertension among adolescents: systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the prevalence of hypertension among adolescent Brazilian students.
  
  
  METHODS
  A systematic review of school-based cross-sectional studies was conducted. The articles were searched in the databases MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, LILACS, SciELO, Web of Science, CAPES thesis database and Trip Database. In addition, we examined the lists of references of relevant studies to identify potentially eligible articles. No restrictions regarding publication date, language, or status applied. The studies were selected by two independent evaluators, who also extracted the data and assessed the methodological quality following eight criteria related to sampling, measuring blood pressure, and presenting results. The meta-analysis was calculated using a random effects model and analyses were performed to investigate heterogeneity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We retrieved 1,577 articles from the search and included 22 in the review. The included articles corresponded to 14,115 adolescents, 51.2% (n = 7,230) female. We observed a variety of techniques, equipment, and references used. The prevalence of hypertension was 8.0% (95%CI 5.0-11.0; I2 = 97.6%), 9.3% (95%CI 5.6-13.6; I2 = 96.4%) in males and 6.5% (95%CI 4.2-9.1; I2 = 94.2%) in females. The meta-regression failed to identify the causes of the heterogeneity among studies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite the differences found in the methodologies of the included studies, the results of this systematic review indicate that hypertension is prevalent in the Brazilian adolescent school population. For future investigations, we suggest the standardization of techniques, equipment, and references, aiming at improving the methodological quality of the studies.
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brasil.
authors.forename: Vivian Siqueira Santos
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.affiliation: Hospital Universitário Getúlio Vargas, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, AM, Brasil.
authors.forename: Taís Freire
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Galvão
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brasil.
authors.forename: Keitty Regina Cordeiro
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: de Andrade
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brasil.
authors.forename: Eliane Said
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Dutra
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brasil.
authors.forename: Maria Natacha Toral
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Bertolin
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brasil.
authors.forename: Kenia Mara Baiocchi
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: de Carvalho
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brasil.
authors.forename: Mauricio Gomes
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Pereira
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors