Psychophysical Correlates of Elevated Blood Pressure: A Study of Urban Black Adolescents

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Abstract
A broad-ranged health study of a community probability sample of urban black adolescents (N=496) provided an opportunity to analyze certain conditions which have been found to be correlated with elevated blood pressure at ages later in life. On the basis of three blood pressure readings taken during the course of a half-hour medical examination, the sample of 12–17-year-old black boys and girls was classified into those with: consistently high readings (diastolic 90 mm Hg. or greater on all three or on two out of three readings, (N=37); labile or only one high reading (N=49): no high blood pressure reading (N=410). Percentage cross tabulation and multiple discriminant analyses were performed. Findings pointed to the significance of obesity as an indicator of elevated blood pressure in adolescence. Differences were observed between boys and girls in conditions which were associated with elevated blood pressure and in the strength of the association. For example, smoking was a significant correlate for boys, but not for girls. It was the strongest discriminator of elevated blood pressure for young male adolescents and was more distinctive of fluctuating or labile high pressures than consistently high pressures. In general, the social and psychophysical correlates included in this study were stronger definers of elevated blood pressure for adolescent boys than for girls. And, strikingly, fluctuating or labile blood pressure in itself comprised a distinct condition among teenaged boys but not girls, with determinants significantly different from those observed in relation to consistently elevated blood pressure.