Prevalence of Elevated Blood Pressure Levels in Overweight and Obese Young Population (2 -19 Years) in the United States between 2011-2012

Several studies have reported hypertension prevalence in children and adolescents in the United States (US) using regional or local population-based samples but few have reported national prevalence. The present study estimates national hypertension prevalence in US children and adolescents for 2011-2012. A convenient sample size of 4,196 (population aged ? 19) representing 43% of 9,756 (total survey respondents) was selected and stratified by age groups; "Children" and "Adolescents" using the 2007 Joint National Committee recommended definitions. Next, hypertension distribution was explained by gender, race, age, body weight, standing height and blood serum total cholesterol. Variations in BP levels were measured and expressed in percentiles for nominal variables and by means and standard deviations for continuous variables. Estimated national hypertension prevalence in the US for the 2011-2012 analysis period were 3% in children aged (2<=11 years) and 14% in adolescents aged (12<=19 years). Rates were highest among adolescent boys (4%) stage 1 and (7%) stage 2 and lowest among adolescent girls (2%) stage 1 and (0.86%) stage 2. Adolescent Blacks had highest relative rate (21% SE <1) compared to lowest rate of 8% in Non-Hispanic Asians. The highest BP risk factor was body weight with a t-value of 7.75 and (p<.0001). 05 significance. In conclusion, 4 of 10 (46%) US adolescents who had hypertension were either overweight or obese. The findings in this report suggest that overweight and obese children and adolescents might have increased risk of hypertension. Therefore, interventions that decrease obesity in children such as healthy eating and good exercise and those that decrease elevated BP levels in children and adolescents must be broad based and focused on children and adolescents at the risk of high BP. The major limitation of this study is that regression models used in this study assume constant variability across subpopulations and constant time between analysis periods. Therefore, interpretation of estimates from this study must be made only after a careful consideration of the methods used. The results confirm hypertension risk in children with associated prevalence of obesity. Therefore, comprehensive hypertension intervention programs can positively improve population health. Future studies should focus on assessing the impact of intervention programs.