THURSDAY, July 12, 2018 (HealthDay News) — There's good news and bad news from a new report when it comes to high blood pressure among America's children.
"The new hypertension guidelines have reclassified those young patients who previously were considered to have 'normal' blood pressure to now fall under the category of high blood pressure," said Dr. Rachel Bond, who helps direct women's heart health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
The new guidelines are "a positive step towards screening and risk-stratifying younger patients, who are often neglected from the health system," she said.
The new study was led by Sandra Jackson, a heart researcher at the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Jackson's team theorized that the percentage drop in high blood pressure cases "might be related to improved diet quality or improved [blood pressure] screening, and earlier lifestyle or pharmacological interventions." For example, many U.S. schools have recently worked to reduce salt and fatty foods from cafeteria menus, and the researchers said there's also been a rise in the use of antihypertensive medications in kids.
However, despite these improvements, and because of the changes in the AAP's definition of pediatric hypertension, there was a "net increase" of an estimated 795,000 kids aged 12 to 19 who met the new threshold for hypertension, the CDC team explained.
Dr. David Friedman directs heart failure services at Northwell Health's Long Island Jewish Valley Stream Hospital, N.Y. He agreed that heart health can't begin too early.
"Screening and intervening on risk factors for heart disease earlier in life can make a big difference in trying to reduce future risk," he said.
"Although children don't usually suffer the consequences of high blood pressure in the pediatric years, if left untreated, high blood pressure, also known as the 'silent killer,' can result in multiple complications later on in life," Bond said.
The new findings were published in the July 13 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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