This article, written by CNN, claims that global rates of hypertension (high blood pressure) in children and adolescents has nearly doubled since 2000, increasing the risk of long-term health issues such as heart disease. In 2000, about 3.4% of boys and 3% of girls had hypertension, and by 2020, those numbers had risen to 6.5% and 5.8% respectively. Physicians and medical researchers attribute this sudden spike in diagnoses to various factors such as childhood obesity, poor diet & exercise, inflammation and lack of vascular function, consumption of too much sodium, genetic predisposition, etc. Even environmental pollutants have been found to be a contributing factor as of late.
Experts have since emphasized that hypertension in children is a modifiable risk, as it is now easier to intervene due to better screening and a strong focus on prevention. The study done here analyzed data from 96 studies across 21 countries and accounted for "masked" hypertension, where children's blood pressure readings differ between home and office settings. Masked hypertension was the most common type found, suggesting that relying solely on office measurements could lead to (and has lead to) many missed cases. Researchers stress the need for better monitoring and scalable solutions to detect and manage high blood pressure in children worldwide (CNN).
