CONSISTENCY OF ETHNIC-DIFFERENCES IN CHILDRENS PRESSOR REACTIVITY - 1987 TO 1992

In this prospective investigation, all children enrolled in the public third-grade classrooms of an entire county (n=474) had blood pressure measured both at rest and during a stressful television video game. E xaminations were repeated in 4 subsequent years when cohort children a s well as newly enrolled children were in grades 4, 5, 7, and 8. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses indicated that black childre n demonstrated significantly greater systolic and diastolic presser re activity than white children. These data suggest that ethnic differenc es in children's presser reactivity presage ethnic differences in adul thood hypertension.