Maturation vs age: assessing blood pressure by height.

The Minneapolis Children's Blood Pressure Study surveyed 9,977 school children aged 6 to 9 years. Analyses revealed that both age and height should be considered in determining whether a child's blood pressure is within "normal limits." Because of the wide range of physiologic maturation seen at any given year of chronologic age, use of blood pressure norms presented by age only may result in important errors in the classification of blood pressure. It is emphasized that repeated measurements over time are important but that this does not eliminate the need to consider height as a measure of maturation.