High blood pressure is no longer just an adult concern; children around the world are now facing it at alarming rates. A comprehensive international study reviewing data from more than 400,000 kids found that between 2000 and 2020, hypertension in boys jumped from 3.40 percent to 6.53 percent. Girls saw a similar increase, rising from 3.02 percent to 5.82 percent.
Researchers, who published their findings in The Lancet, found the strongest link between high blood pressure and obesity. Children with obesity were nearly eight times more likely to have confirmed hypertension and almost 19 percent had prehypertension.
“When defined by blood pressure confirmed on at least three separate in-office occasions, the global pooled prevalence was 4.28 percent,” the study authors noted, “with an additional 8.15 percent of children and adolescents classified as having prehypertension.”
Dr. Rubin Cooper, a pediatric cardiologist at Cohen Children’s Medical Center who was not involved with the study, emphasized the widespread nature of the issue.
“The prevalence of hypertension in children is significant. It has increased over a 20-year period and different geographic locations, but pretty much worldwide,” Dr. Cooper said in a statement to Newsweek.
Although obesity is a major factor, Cooper cautioned that even children at normal or low weight are being diagnosed. He encouraged families to make healthier lifestyle choices, including less screen time and more whole foods.
“It’s not as if diet alone or activity alone is going to save people,” he added, “but it definitely will make a good portion of the population healthier.”
The study is the first to assess global childhood hypertension using both clinical and at-home readings.
