‘High BP Cases In Children, Teens Doubled In Last 20 Years’

Prevalence of hypertension or high blood pressure among children and teenagers has nearly doubled in the last two decades, from 3.2 per cent in 2000 to over six per cent in 2020, according to a global analysis published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health journal.

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Left unaddressed, hypertension can lead to cardiovascular and kidney disease.

Estimates also suggest that nearly a fifth of the world's children and adolescents with obesity have hypertension -- about eight times the prevalence among those having a healthy weight (2.4 per cent), researchers including those from the UK's University of Edinburgh said.

The findings suggest obesity is a substantial driver of the increase in childhood hypertension. Obesity tends to cause other issues, such as insulin resistance and changes in blood vessels, which can make it harder to maintain a healthy blood pressure.

Further, eight per cent of children and teenagers around the world may be having pre-hypertension, which is a warning sign of hypertension, the study found.