Abstract P395: Blood Pressure Screening in Teenage Blood Donors Using the New American Academy of Pediatrics Guidelines

• Published in: Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. 1979) Vol. 72; no. Suppl_1
• Main Authors: Sutor, Laurie, Eason, Stephen J, Goudar, Shankar, Centilli, Jeff, Sayers, Merlyn H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-09-2018
• ISSN: 0194-911X; 1524-4563
• DOI: 10.1161/hyp.72.suppl_1.P395

Abstract only
Background:
Screening of youngsters is valuable in identifying current or future health risk. Since approximately 20% of all blood donated in the U.S. comes from teenagers, blood donation is an opportunity to screen younger individuals. We decided to capitalize on this opportunity and investigate the prevalence of abnormal blood pressure in teenagers using the new American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines which lowered the threshold for what could be considered a raised blood pressure. Since comparative data are limited in this age group we also decided to report our results by gender and race.
Study:
Participants were volunteer donors at high schools, aged 16-19 years, who donated between 2015 and 2017. Blood pressure was measured using automated equipment (Welch Allyn, ProBP). Blood pressure was classified as suggested by the AAP: normal (<120/<80), prehypertension (120/<80 to129/<80), Stage 1 hypertension (130/80 to139/89), and stage 2 hypertension (≥140/90). Donors were invited to declare their ethnicity at the time of donation.
Results:
During the study period there were 80,950 individual donors,10.8% (8,774) were African American, 4.2% (3,410) Asian, 51.9% (42,040) Caucasian and 33.0% (26,726) Hispanic. More males than females, in all ethnicities, had blood pressures above normal. % 16 - 19 year old blood donors (donating from 2015-2017) categorized by the AAP blood pressure guidelines, by ethnicity and gender (N=80,950)
Conclusion:
Blood donation is confirmed as an opportunity to screen blood pressure in an ostensibly healthy subset of the younger population. This scrutiny does identify teenagers deserving follow up and also reveals ethnic and gender differences.