New Delhi | A higher blood pressure at age seven could increase risk of dying from heart disease in mid-50s, researchers said, stressing the importance of checking children's blood pressure regularly and inculcating heart-healthy habits.
"Having hypertension or elevated blood pressure as a child may increase the risk of death by 40 per cent to 50 per cent over the next five decades of an individual's life," said lead author of the study, Alexa Freedman, an assistant professor at the Northwestern University's school of medicine, US.
The researchers presented the findings at the American Heart Association's Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2025. The study is also published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Around 38,000 children born to women enrolled in the US Collaborative Perinatal Project (CPP) between 1959 and 1966 were followed up into the sixth decade of their lives. A total of 2,837 participants were found to have died in 2016 -- 504 of these were attributed to cardiovascular disease.
The authors wrote, "In a large sample of US children born between 1959 and 1966, higher BP at age seven years was associated with greater risk of premature (cardiovascular) mortality." "Our results highlight the importance of screening for blood pressure in childhood and focusing on strategies to promote optimal cardiovascular health beginning in childhood," Freedman said.
Bonita Falkner, an expert volunteer with the American Heart Association, emeritus professor of paediatrics and medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, and not involved with the study, said the results of this study and those of older child cohort ones, with potential follow-up in adulthood, "will contribute to a more accurate definition of abnormal blood pressure and hypertension in childhood."
