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.