1 in 5 American Youths May Have Hypertension

Roughly 19% of young adults in the United States may have high blood pressure.  Quynh C. Nguyen, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (North Carolina, USA), and colleagues analyzed data collected on more than 14,000 men and women, ages 24 to 32 years, enrolled in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health).  The study authors noted that many young people are unaware that they have high blood pressure.  In such screenings of a large number of participants, it is expected that more participants would be found to have high blood pressure upon examination than would report that they had high blood pressure in the past.  The Add Health survey results fit this expected pattern, with 11% saying they had earlier been told they had high blood pressure, and 19% later having been found to have high blood pressure upon examination.   The researchers warn that: “The prevalence of hypertension among Add Health Wave IV participants suggests an unexpectedly high risk of cardiovascular disease among US young adults and warrants further scrutiny.”