Stability of Ethnic Differences in Children’s Pressor Responses During Three Annual Examinations

: In this study, 395 healthy children had blood pressure and heart rate measured both at rest and during a stressful video game. Identical measurement procedures were used for three annual examinations. Consistently, black children demonstrated significantly greater pressor responses than white children. In view of the greater prevalence of hypertension among black adults than white adults, these data suggest that blacks exhibit hemodynamic irregularities well before the onset or diagnosis of hypertension.