EFFECT OF DOCTOR’S WEARING ON BLOOD PRESSURE IN PREPUBERAL CHILDREN

Background. It is well recognized that in adult population higher blood pressure (BP) readings may result, via emotional arousal, when the doctor is wearing a white coat rather than dressed in casual clothing. An evidence from pediatric population on this “white coat phenomenon” is only based on some anecdotal experience from the authors. Therefore, in this cross-sectional study we examined a large group of children to uncover whether the examiner’s wearing may promote physiologic changes in BP during cardiologic examination in our busy clinical setting. Method. A cohort of 183 children aged 6-8 years was derived from a larger series of 719 randomly selected well-being children aged 5-15 years, examined between July 2004 and March 2005 (referral for heart murmur in many cases). In each subject, a single BP measurement by means of a standard oscillometric technique was considered. Anthropometric measurements also were obtained. Subjects with underlying conditions predisposing to hypertension were excluded. Children were categorized by sex and examiner’s wearing, thus forming four groups. Differences between groups were tested by a two-way ANOVA design with SPSS for Windows. Gender Results and Conclusions. The results of the study are summarized in the table. All values are given as mean ± SD.