Evaluating Measurement Error in Readings of Blood Pressure among Adolescents and Young Adults in a Developing Country

Shawn Bauldry, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Kenneth Bollen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Biomarkers are increasingly being included in surveys used by population researchers and prominent among these biomarkers are blood pressure readings. To help address random fluctuations in blood pressure, it has long been known that multiple readings of blood pressure are preferable to a single reading. In this study, we use a Structural Equation Modeling approach to evaluate measurement error in blood pressure readings at three different time points spanning six years among adolescents and young adults who were part of a longitudinal epidemiological study based in Cebu, Philippines. Our results indicate that there are no systematic differences in the measurement properties of the three readings. There are, however, differences in the measurement properties across waves and for females and males. Finally, we find that simple linear combinations of the blood pressure readings have quite high validity, and therefore do a good job of reflecting the underlying “true” blood pressure.