Leading doctors have called for a national programme to monitor schoolchildren for high blood pressure, warning that rising rates in adolescents could lead to organ damage, strokes and heart attacks in early adulthood. The prevalence of hypertension among children has nearly doubled in the past 20 years, yet no routine testing is performed in the UK, leaving doctors unaware of the scale of the problem.
Professor Manish Sinha, a consultant paediatric nephrologist at Evelina London Children's Hospital, said: 'We need to find out how bad the problem is, and that means finding a way to measure blood pressure in children who are still at school.' He added that hypertension is often not recognised as a childhood issue, but unhealthy lifestyles are putting young people at greater risk of kidney disease, stroke and heart attack later in life.
High blood pressure can damage the body for years without symptoms, causing aneurysms and heart failure. Dr Emily Haseler, who studies childhood hypertension at King's College London, warned that the rise in cases could burden the NHS and reduce productivity as more working-age people suffer its effects. She suggested monitoring could be added to the national child measurement programme or introduced as a new NHS health check in adolescence.
Alternative approaches include targeted screening for children at high risk, such as those with a family history of hypertension, those born prematurely, or those who are overweight. Professor Igor Rudan of the University of Edinburgh said: 'We must start monitoring this so we can understand the scale of the problem and start thinking about what to do.'
Research from Canada shows childhood and adolescent hypertension rose from 1.3% in the 1990s to 6% in the 2010s, with twice as many having pre-hypertension. Juliet Bouverie, chief executive of the Stroke Association, noted an 'alarming surge' in strokes among working-age people. However, Professor Rudan said children may be easier to help than older people, with more opportunity to get them back on track.
