Blood pressure percentiles by age and height for non-overweight Chinese children and adolescents: analysis of the china health and nutrition surveys 1991-2009

Background: Hypertension is an important health problem in China and raised blood pressure in children may lead to future hypertension. Accordingly we aimed to provide a reference blood pressure table for age, gender and height in Chinese children. Methods: A reference sample of subjects was drawn from the Chinese Health and National Survey 1999-2009 aged 7-17 years after excluding overweight and obese children, the 50th, 90th and 95th percentiles of systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) are presented corrected for height and age by gender. These values are compared with existing Chinese and US recommendations. Results: Results for the 50th, 90th and 95th percentile of SBP and DBP for 6245 boys and 5707 girls were presented by age and height percentiles. These observations were lower than existing Chinese recommendations before 13 years of age at median heightbut went higher in those >13 years old. At same age and height, SBP levels of American children were overall higher than Chinese counterparts from this study by average 9-10 mm Hg, but DBP did not show overall or significant difference. Conclusions: The first height-specific blood pressure reference values are proposed for Chinese children and adolescents aged 7-17 years. These are lower than existing US reference values and current Chinese cutoffs.