Senior medical professionals are urging the government to launch a nationwide programme to check schoolchildren's blood pressure, following a dramatic rise in cases among adolescents that threatens to fuel a future wave of organ damage, strokes, and heart attacks.
A Silent Crisis in Young People
Rates of high blood pressure have nearly doubled among children over the past two decades. Despite this alarming trend, the UK conducts no routine testing, leaving doctors without a clear picture of the problem's scale or which young people are most at risk.
Experts argue that identifying hypertensive teenagers would allow GPs to intervene much earlier, potentially reducing the danger of severe cardiovascular disease as these individuals reach their 30s and 40s. "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," stated Professor Manish Sinha, a consultant paediatric nephrologist at the Evelina London children's hospital.
He emphasised that the core issue is a lack of awareness. "People don't recognise that hypertension can be a childhood problem," he said. "We have a more unhealthy childhood population, and hypertension puts them at greater risk of events like kidney disease, stroke and heart attack earlier in their adult lives."
From Screen Time to Health Decline
While high blood pressure in very young children is often linked to underlying medical conditions, doctors are now seeing a surge in cases connected to lifestyle factors: excess weight, poor nutrition, and critically, a lack of physical exercise.
Professor Igor Rudan, co-head of the Centre for Global Health at the University of Edinburgh, pointed to a seismic shift in behaviour. "The digital age has brought about changes in how children spend their time that we haven't seen in the history of humanity," he explained. "Traditionally, kids were playing with each other outside... now parents just give them a screen."
The consequences are stark. Obese children are developing hypertension at eight times the rate of their peers. This condition can silently damage the body for years, weakening arteries and straining the heart, long before any symptoms appear.
A Preventable Burden on the NHS
Research underscores the long-term danger. A Canadian study showed childhood and adolescent hypertension rose from 1.3% in the 1990s to 6% in the 2010s. Furthermore, a study of over 25,000 hypertensive teens found their risk of kidney disease or failure was three times higher over a 14-year period compared to those with normal blood pressure.
Dr Emily Haseler of King's College London warned this trend is set to become a further burden on the NHS and harm national productivity as more people of working age suffer the effects. She suggested new checks could be integrated into existing programmes, like the national child measurement programme at the end of primary school, or via a new adolescent NHS health check.
Professor Ian Wilkinson, president of the British and Irish Hypertension Society, criticised the current reactive approach. "What we're currently doing is waiting for people to get to 40 or 50, waiting for their blood pressure to rise, and then treating them. We are ignoring younger people," he said. He advocates for monitoring in secondary schools and a public health drive to cut salt intake and obesity.
Juliet Bouverie, chief executive of the Stroke Association, highlighted the urgency, noting an "alarming surge" in strokes among people of working age. With high blood pressure causing about half of all strokes, she stressed childhood is a crucial window to establish healthy habits. "Without these healthy habits, the body can store up problems for later in life," she warned.
The consensus among specialists is clear: early detection through systematic screening is vital to curb this growing public health emergency and safeguard the future health of a generation.
