Blood pressure in children aged 4-8 years: comparison of Omron HEM 711 and sphygmomanometer blood pressure measurements.

Abstract

To collect normal data on blood pressure (BP) in healthy children aged 4-8 and to compare measurements of BP made in the same subjects with a sphygmomanometer and a portable automated oscillometric BP monitor (Omron HEM 711 with child cuff). Cross-sectional observational study of 764 children. BP measurements were made at school, using both a sphygmomanometer and an Omron HEM 711. Immediately after the BP measurement children were asked to state which device they preferred (if any). Children had no preference for whether the sphygmomanometer or the Omron was used. Bland-Altman plots showed a lack of consistency between the two methods of BP measurement. With systolic BP there was a trend for the Omron to underestimate when low and overestimate when high. Children were equally distributed in their preference for BP device. There was a wide variation between the two methods of BP measurement, which suggests that comparison of automated BP measurements with normative data obtained by sphygmomanometer is not valid.