A new report by the American Heart Association states that over a period of 13 years, the rate of high blood pressure among children and adolescents has increased by 27 percent.
High blood pressure causes heart disease, strokes and kidney failure and is accountable for over 350,000 preventable deaths a year in the United States. Some of the causes of high blood pressure include higher body mass, large waistlines and eating excess sodium. The American Heart Association recommends 1,500 or less milligrams of daily sodium intake. However, Americans consume more than 3,400 milligrams of sodium daily, which is twice as much the recommended amount. Majority of this sodium comes from consuming store-bought foods and one-quarter from eating in restaurants.
In a new research by the American Heart Association, high blood pressure rates have increased by 27 percent among children and adolescents over the last 13 years.
The normal blood pressure for adults aged 20 and above is less than 120/80 mm Hg. For children, this reading depends on their age, sex and height.
During the research, authors studied more than 3,200 children ages 8-17 in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III from 1988-1994 and compared them to more than 8,300 in NHANES from 1999-2008.
They found that though boys were more likely to have elevated blood pressure, the rate increased more significantly in girls from the first study to the second. More children in the second study were overweight and both genders had bigger waistlines. Researchers also noticed that children whose body mass or waistline measurements were in the top 25 percent for their age group were about twice as likely to have elevated blood pressure as children with measurements in the bottom 25 percent. African-American children had a 28 percent higher risk of elevated blood pressure than non-Hispanic white children. Finally, in both studies, children with a larger intake of sodium were at a 36 percent higher risk of having elevated blood pressure.
In both studies, 80 percent of the children had daily sodium consumption above 2,300 milligrams. However, in the second study, fewer children had daily sodium consumption above 3,450 milligrams.
"High blood pressure is dangerous in part because many people don't know they have it," said Bernard Rosner, Ph.D., lead author of the study and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass. "It's a very sneaky thing. Blood pressure has to be measured regularly to keep on top of it."
Findings of the study were publishing in the journal Hypertension.
