High blood pressure is laying down more children

Vineeta Pandey & Anandita Chatterjee

Stress, junk food & lack of physical exercise are the main causes

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Sachin Gokhale was plagued by persistent headaches. His parents thought it was an eye problem and took him to an ophthalmologist. But it turned out his eyes were in perfect shape. Nine-year-old Sachin, a topper in school, was finally diagnosed with high blood pressure — all thanks to stress and junk foods.

Hypertension is not an adult’s disease anymore. The silent killer not only affects adolescents, it’s prevalent among kids too, say studies. Kids account for 2-5% of the hypertension cases worldwide. Yet diagnosis is often complicated because blood pressure numbers vary with age, sex, and height.

So, hypertension among kids and adolescents remains largely undiagnosed. According to a study by Dr Anoop Misra, director of the Delhi-based Fortis Group of Hospitals, hypertension is prevalent among six per cent of the capital’s school-going children. A study by the Mumbai-based Nair Hospital indicates children of hypertensive parents are more likely to develop hypertension.

“In India, only 10 per cent of hypertension cases among kids and adolescents are detected. Also, parents, who have history of hypertension, do not get their children’s blood pressure monitored,” says Dr Misra.

The Indian findings are borne out by a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, conducted by Dr Matthew L Hansen of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, determined the frequency of undiagnosed hypertension and pre-hypertension in 3- to 18-year-old children.  

The study, which observed 14,187 children and adolescents, found that the criteria for hypertension was met by 507 children (3.6 per cent). However, of the children with hypertension, only 131 (26 per cent) had a diagnosis of hypertension or elevated blood pressure documented, and 376 of 507 participants (74 per cent) had undiagnosed hypertension.

“The 74% figure is an underestimate since most cases are not even diagnosed”, says Dr Bharat Dalvi, a Mumbai-based paediatric cardiologist. “In the last five years, I have seen a massive rise in hypertensive kids in the city. When I started my practice, I hardly saw any. Stress, junk food, and lack of physical exercise are the main causes.” 

But those are not the only causes. Points out Dr Sonali Tank, a paediatrician: “Childhood obesity is also rising, leading to hypertension. Mother’s milk can be highly beneficial, since the chances of a baby being obese become slimmer.”

Dr Rajeev Rathi, a cardiologist at Noida’s Metro Heart Institute, remembers the case of a six-year-old. “The child was detected with a high blood pressure of 160/100. The case was quickly detected because the child happened to be a cardiologist’s son. Normally, parents don’t even think of getting their children’s blood pressure monitored.”

But that could be worrisome. Cautions Dr Savitri Shrivastava, paediatric cardiologist at Escorts Heart Institute: “You should check the blood pressure of every child over three years of age. The seeds of hypertension are sown in childhood itself. Now, hypertension detection should be made part of regular health check-ups in schools.”