Blood pressure percentiles and systemic hypertension-associated factors among children aged between 6 and 15 years in Southern Vietnam

Background: The present study determined blood pressure percentiles in children aged between 6 and 15 years in Southern Vietnam. Material and methods: Blood pressure was measured in a random sample of 1080 students aged 6-15 years who was studying at primary and secondary high schools in My Tho city, Vietnam. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2019 to June 2020. To diagnose children systemic hypertension, the blood pressure must be above the 95 th percentile. Data were analyzed by IBM SPSS statistics software version 20.0. The Chi-squared test was employed to evaluate the relationship between systemic hypertension and child demographic characteristics including gender and obesity. Results: The results showed that the 95th percentiles of systolic and diastolic blood pressure of the children was 110/70 mm Hg in the 6-year-old group, 120/75 mm Hg in the 7 to12-year-old group and 125/80 mm Hg in the 13 to 15-year-old group, respectively. The rate of systemic hypertension in the children was 10% whereas boys had a 1.2 time higher risk of systemic hypertension than girls (p > 0.05). Obese children had an 8.6 time higher risk of systemic hypertension than non-obese ones (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The blood pressure percentile chart of school children aged 6-15 years were reported here for the first time in Vietnam. The results provided useful information in early diagnosis and timely treatment of systemic hypertension in children.