Blood pressure in children aged 4–8 years: comparison of Omron HEM 711 and sphygmomanometer blood pressure measurements
- 1Department of Reproductive and Developmental Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- 2Lothian University Hospitals NHS Trust, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh, UK
- Correspondence to Dr P Midgley, Neonatal Unit, Simpson CRH, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Little France Crescent, Edinburgh EH16 4SA, UK; paula.midgley{at}ed.ac.uk
- Accepted 1 July 2009
- Published Online First 15 July 2009
Abstract
Objective: 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).
Methods: 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).
Results: 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.
Conclusions: 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.
Footnotes
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Funding This study was funded by Ferring Pharmaceuticals.
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Competing interests None.
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Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
