Prevalencia de hipertensión arterial en niños y adolescentes de América Latina: revisión sistemática y metaanálisis

Introduction: high blood pressure (HBP) in children and adolescents is a serious public health problem. Although it is recognized as such, the resulting burden of disease in the Latin American paediatric population remains unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the global prevalence of HBP in children and adolescents in Latin America, overall and by sex and geographical area. Materials and methods: we carried out a systematic literature review through the MedLine, Embase, Lilacs, Scielo, MedCarib and Google Academic databases to identify studies that analysed the prevalence of HBP in children and adolescents in Latin America. Subsequently, we performed a meta-analy-sis to obtain a quantitative synthesis of the global prevalence of HBP in the paediatric population. Results: in November 2020, the literature search yielded 6437 potentially relevant publications, of which 77 studies were finally included in the quantitative synthesis. The global prevalence of HBP in the Latin American paediatric population was 8% (95% confidence interval, 7 to 9%), with a higher prevalence in males and in urban settings. Conclusion: this is the first systematic review to determine the prevalence of HBP in children and adolescents in Latin America, which turned out to be higher compared to the prevalence estimated at the global level and even for other continents.