• Myung Ha Lee, Dae Ryong Kang, Hyeon Chang Kim, Song Vogue Ahn, Kay-Tee Khaw, and Il Suh.
• Department of Preventive Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50-1 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-752, Korea. isuh@yuhs.ac.
• Yonsei Med. J. 2014 Mar 1; 55 (2): 360-6.

PurposeA number of longitudinal studies have tracked blood pressure over time in children and adults. Although there are a few blood pressure tracking studies for Asian populations, they are all relatively short-term studies with around only 10 years of follow-up. Accordingly, we assessed the stability of blood pressure tracking from childhood to adulthood over a 24-year follow-up period among participants in the Kangwha Study.Materials And MethodsThe Kangwha Study was a community- based prospective cohort study that started in 1986 in Kangwha County, South Korea. The study dataset included 14 blood pressure measurements over a 24-year period from 266 (123 male and 143 female) participants who completed the 2010 examination. All participants were 7 years old when the study began and were followed for the next 24 years.ResultsThe tracking coefficient (95% confidence interval) for systolic blood pressure was 0.81 (0.52-1.11) in men and 0.72 (0.51-0.92) in women; diastolic blood pressure was 0.53 (0.26-0.80) in men and 0.33 (0.15-0.52) in women. After adjusting for body mass index, the tracking coefficient for systolic blood pressure was 0.68 (0.39-0.97) in men and 0.67 (0.44-0.89) in women; diastolic blood pressure was 0.51 (0.24-0.78) in men and 0.33 (0.15-0.51) in women. All tracking coefficients were statistically significant (p<0.001).ConclusionIn this 24-year longitudinal study, we confirmed the stability of blood pressure tracking from childhood to adulthood for participants in the Kangwha Study.

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