Blood pressure in children aged 4-8 years: comparison of Omron HEM 711 and sphygmomanometer blood pressure measurements

Objective: To collect normal data on blood pressure (BP) in healthy children aged 4-8 and to compare measurements of BP made in the same subjects with a sphygmomanometer and a portable automated oscillometric BP monitor (Omron HEM 711 with child cuff). Methods: Cross-sectional observational study of 764 children. BP measurements were made at school, using both a sphygmomanometer and an Omron HEM 711. Immediately after the BP measurement children were asked to state which device they preferred (if any). Results: Children had no preference for whether the sphygmomanometer or the Omron was used. Bland-Altman plots showed a lack of consistency between the two methods of BP measurement. With systolic BP there was a trend for the Omron to underestimate when low and overestimate when high. Conclusions: Children were equally distributed in their preference for BP device. There was a wide variation between the two methods of BP measurement, which suggests that comparison of automated BP measurements with normative data obtained by sphygmomanometer is not valid.