Childhood Hypertension More Common

A systematic review and meta-analysis suggested that global prevalence of hypertension in children is becoming more common. The analysis included 47 studies of children ages 6 to 19, from 1994 to 2018 with at least 3 separate blood pressure measurements. Standardized definitions of hypertension was based on the fourth report from the National High Blood Pressure Education Program working group for children and adolescents. The pooled prevalence was 4.00% for hypertension, 9.67% for prehypertension, 4.00% for stage 1 hypertension, and 0.95% for stage 2 hypertension in children 19 years and younger. In subgroup meta-analyses, the prevalence of childhood hypertension was higher when measured by aneroid sphygmomanometer (7.23% vs 4.59% by mercury sphygmomanometer vs 2.94% by oscillometric sphygmomanometer) and among obese and overweight children (15.27% and 4.99% vs 1.90% among normal-weight children). A trend of increasing prevalence of childhood hypertension was observed during the past 2 decades, with a relative increasing rate of 75% to 79% from 2000 to 2015. In 2015, the prevalence of hypertension ranged from 4.32% among children aged 6 years to 3.28% among those aged 19 years and peaked at 7.89% among those aged 14 years. The findings represent a considerable public health challenge worldwide. The finding of hypertension during periods of rapid growth in height, who can then have normal blood pressure later in adolescence and young adulthood, is also consistent with the clinical observation of adolescents. Source: https://jamanetwork.com/