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Home Blood Pressure Assessment in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Feasibility Study

Artery Research volume 25, pages 145–149 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Introduction

Measurement of Blood Pressure (BP) in children provides insight into future Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk.

Objective

To examine the feasibility and reliability of home BP monitoring in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and compare to office BP measurement.

Methods

Seven day home BP monitoring was completed using an electronic device in 16 children with ASD (mean age 7 ± 3, n = 2 girls) and compared with a single “office” BP measure. Parents were asked to take two measures in the morning and two measures in the early evening.

Results

Eleven parents were able to obtain >75% of measures with eight of those 11 parents obtaining >90% of measures. There were no statistical differences between mean office Systolic BP (SBP) and mean home SBP (mean difference 2 ± 9 mmHg, p = 0.46) or mean office Diastolic BP (DBP) and mean home DBP (mean difference 1 ± 7 mmHg, p = 0.68). The correlation between home and office SBP was r = 0.44 (p = 0.02). The correlation between home and office DBP was r = 0.43 (p = 0.05). Home SBP correlated with age, height and BMI (p < 0.05) while office SBP did not (p > 0.05). Three days with 4 measurements/day was sufficient to achieve reliable home BP measurements (G > 0.8).

Conclusion

Home BP monitoring is feasible in children with ASD, is associated with typical correlates (age, height), and is better associated with obesity status (BMI) than office BP measurement.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Exercise Science, Human Performance Laboratory, Syracuse University, 13244, Syracuse, NY, USA

    Kevin S. Heffernan, Luis Columna, Laura Prieto, Patricia Pagan, Jacob DeBlois, Gianpietro Revolledo & Tiago V. Barreira

  2. Department of Psychology, Center for Autism Research and Electrophysiology, Syracuse University, 13244, Syracuse, NY, USA

    Alyssa Prawl & Natalie Russo

Authors
  1. Kevin S. Heffernan
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  2. Luis Columna
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  3. Laura Prieto
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  4. Patricia Pagan
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  5. Jacob DeBlois
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  6. Alyssa Prawl
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  7. Gianpietro Revolledo
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  8. Natalie Russo
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  9. Tiago V. Barreira
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kevin S. Heffernan.

Additional information

Peer review under responsibility of the Association for Research into Arterial Structure and Physiology

Data availability statement: The current study data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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Heffernan, K.S., Columna, L., Prieto, L. et al. Home Blood Pressure Assessment in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Feasibility Study. Artery Res 25, 145–149 (2019). https://doi.org/10.2991/artres.k.191123.001

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2991/artres.k.191123.001

Keywords

Artery Research

ISSN: 1876-4401

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