Tracking of Blood Pressure From Childhood to Adulthood

BACKGROUND: A large number of studies have examined the tracking of blood pressure (BP) from childhood to adulthood, but the reported findings are inconsistent and few systematic analyses have been conducted. METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted a systematic search of PubMed for studies that examined the tracking of BP from childhood to adulthood published between January 1970 and July 2006. From 301 retrieved papers, 50 cohort studies met our inclusion criteria and provided 617 data points (Pearson/Spearman correlation coefficients) for systolic BP (SBP) and 547 data points for diastolic BP (DBP) for our meta-analysis. Information on sample characteristics and BP measurement protocols was extracted. Fisher z…

• JH
  Johns Hopkins University
• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• JH
  Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health