The study--"Trends in Blood Pressure Among Children and Adolescents"--appears in the May 5, 2004 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The study was conducted by researchers at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, and the NHLBI in Bethesda, MD.
This summer, the NHLBI and the National High Blood Pressure Education Program, which it coordinates, will release updated clinical practice guidelines on high blood pressure in children and adolescents. The guidelines, presented in summary form on May 1, 2004 at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) in San Francisco, include revised blood pressure tables and updated recommendations for lifestyle and drug therapies.
"The obesity-related rise in blood pressure among American children is a serious health issue," said NHLBI Acting Director Dr. Barbara Alving. "We need to take steps to reverse this trend. One key step is to give physicians tools that can help them deal with this problem, which is why we're issuing these new guidelines."
"The increases found by the JAMA study in children's average blood pressures may seem small, but they can have serious consequences," said Dr. Jeffrey Cutler, Senior Advisor, NHLBI Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications, and co-author of the JAMA paper. "Previously published data indicate that, for each 1- to 2-millimeter of mercury rise in their systolic blood pressure, children face a 10 percent greater risk of developing hypertension as a young adult."
High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease and the chief risk factor for stroke.<
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Contact: NHLBI Communications Office
301-496-4236
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
4-May-2004