Prevalence of pediatric hypertension nearly doubled in the last 20 years
The prevalence—proportion of cases—of hypertension in minors has almost doubled worldwide between 2000 and 2020, rising from 3.4% to 6.53% in boys and slightly less in girls, according to a systematic review published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. The study brings together data from nearly 444,000 children and adolescents up to the age of 19 in 21 countries.
251113 hipertensión empar EN
Empar Lurbe
Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at the University of Valencia
Researcher Emeritus at the Research Foundation of the Valencia University General Hospital Consortium
Research group head at CIBERobn
High blood pressure in children and adolescents is a global public health problem, although its prevalence has not been well established for various reasons, in particular the difficulty of assessing the presence of hypertension, given that blood pressure in children and adolescents changes with age and growth.
The study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health analyzes the prevalence of hypertension based on measurements taken in the doctor's office or outside the doctor's office. In the former, in a total of 443,914 children up to 19 years of age from 21 countries, the average prevalence was 4.28%, increasing with age and peaking at 14 years. Comparing the prevalence between 2000 and 2020, the prevalence has nearly doubled, both in boys (from 3.4% to 6.53%) and in girls (from 3.025% to 5.82%). When studies that diagnosed hypertension using both methods—clinical and ambulatory measurement—were analyzed, the prevalence was close to 7%.
The authors conclude that pediatric hypertension is a public health problem, more prevalent in the presence of obesity and overweight, and emphasize the need to harmonize diagnostic criteria and methods.
Jiali Zhou et al.
- Research article
- Peer reviewed
- Observational study
- People
- Systematic review
