A new study has found that a single blood pressure reading taken when a person is just 7 years old can have a surprisingly big impact on their risk of dying from cardiovascular disease (CVD), or heart problems, many years later. Researchers from different US universities discovered that children with high blood pressure faced a significantly greater chance of an early death because of heart issues. This finding tells us that screening children's health early is extremely important. The study, published in the medical journal JAMA, highlights how important early health screenings are by showing a clear connection between a child's blood pressure and their long-term health outcome. Children who had elevated blood pressure, meaning it was higher than normal, in the top 10 percent of kids or high blood pressure, in the top 5 percent were about 40 to 50 percent more likely to meet an early death from heart and blood vessel disease. That's a huge jump in risk. How Can Blood Pressure Predict How Long You Live? Researchers explained that they were shocked to find out how elevated blood pressure could affect children later on in life. This means that this shows that health problems start much earlier than previously thought. The team looked at medical records for 37,081 children born in the US between 1959 and 1965, specifically checking their blood pressure at age 7. They checked back in with these people in their early fifties. Out of this large group, nearly 500 people had died from cardiovascular diseases. While the total number of people who died from heart-related issues in the study was small, the dramatic increase in risk for the group with high blood pressure was a very important finding that deserves attention. How Does High Blood Pressure in Childhood Affect Mortality Rate? There are a few things to keep in mind about this research. The biggest is that blood pressure was only measured once at age 7, not checked regularly throughout the people's lives. Also, the data comes from the 1950s and 1960s, so today's children might have different health challenges. The researchers also looked at a smaller group of 359 people from the same families. Since the results were similar for children in the same households, it suggests that the high blood pressure itself is the main problem, rather than other things families share like diet or neighborhood. Besides heart disease, high blood pressure can cause other serious problems like kidney disease, vision loss, and plaque buildup in the arteries. These results "highlight the importance of screening for blood pressure in childhood and focusing on strategies to promote optimal cardiovascular health beginning in childhood," Freedman concluded. What Causes High Blood Pressure In Children? High blood pressure (hypertension) in children and teenagers can happen for a few different reasons. Sometimes it's caused by lifestyle factors, and other times it's a side effect of another medical condition. If high blood pressure runs in the family, a child is more likely to develop it.Being overweight or obese significantly increases the risk.Black children are at a higher risk for high blood pressure, just as Black adults are.Eating too much salt (sodium) or too many calories can contribute to the problem.Having diabetes is a risk factor.Being born with a low birth weight or being born prematurely (too early).Disorders of the kidneys or problems with the heart or blood vessels.Certain hormonal disorders.Sleep apnea, a condition where breathing stops and starts during sleep.
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