Home BP Monitoring for Diagnosis of Hypertension in African American Adolescents

Most cases of high blood pressure in teens are missed for a number of reasons. One reason is that the most common way to make a diagnosis is to make three or more blood pressure measurements in a doctor's office on separate days. This can be inconvenient. Also, measuring blood pressure in the office might be inaccurate, since children (including teens) might have high values in the office but normal values at home. For these reasons, investigators wish to study a different way to identify teens with high blood pressure. Home BP measurements have been used in Europe to make a diagnosis, but not yet in the United States, and never in a higher risk population of teens. African American teens are at higher risk for high blood pressure than other teens. Investigators will compare the values received from the home BP machines to another method (24 hour ambulatory BP monitoring or ABPM) which is the best standard for diagnosis. Investigators also want to learn more about participants experience and their child's experience with both methods. A small sample of participating teens and parents will be invited to participate in short telephone interviews. This study plans to enroll a total of 750 teens at UH. Recruitment will not take place from other organizations.