Evaluation of the factors related to the blood pressuresobtained through ambulatory monitori̇zation inadolescents

In last decades, a significant increase is observed in the hypertension rates in childhood. Children/adolescents with elevated blood pressure (BP) tend to be hypertensive adults. Population-based epidemiologic studies report that hypertension is common in apparently healthy children. Children/adolescents with hypertension are usually asymptomatic and therefore easily overlooked and cannot be diagnosed. The hypertension prevalence in adolescents has been reported as 3.5%. Early diagnosis and management of hypertension in childhood are very important because of increased cardiovascular disease risk. Accurate and early diagnosis of hypertension in children/adolescents is very important, but it is difficult due to the "white coat hypertension". Ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) provides an evaluation of BP during day and night cycle and provides a more correct follow up of the BP profile by measuring various variables (systolic/diastolic BP, mean arterial pressure, BP load). It is a useful clinical tool in the accurate evaluation of hypertension. The aim of this study is to determine the BP profile by ABPM, and prevalence of hypertension among healthy adolescents. It was also aimed to determine the association between BP values and sociodemographic characteristics, nutritional habits, physical activity states, sleep habits, electromagnetic field exposures