An Age Study on Adopting Adult Hypertension Standards in Chinese Mature Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Abstract OBJECTIVE To determine age cutoff values for the use of adult hypertension diagnostic criteria in children and adolescents, and to evaluate the consistency and screening effect of the adult criteria with the sex-, age-, and height-specific blood pressure reference (gold standard). METHODS A literature review and expert consultation were used to determine age cutoff value. In children above the cutoff age, the China Child and Adolescent Cardiovascular Health Survey was used to compare the consistency and screening effect between the adult criteria and the gold standard, and Beijing Blood Pressure Study was used to evaluate the predictive value of childhood hypertension diagnosed by adult criteria and gold criteria for hypertension and subclinical cardiovascular damage in adulthood. RESULTS (i) Adult criteria can be used to evaluate hypertension for children aged 16 and above. (ii) Among adolescents aged 16 and above, the adult standard has lower sensitivity (21.1%) but higher specificity (100.0%) compared with the gold standard, with a consensus rate of over 80.0%. And the predictive ability of the adult standard for subclinical cardiovascular health damage in adulthood is also similar to that of the gold standard. CONCLUSIONS Sixteen years can be used as a cutoff point for the adoption of adult hypertension diagnostic criteria in children, and it has a certain degree of simplicity and accuracy.