BEIJING, Aug. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- A study released in Journal of the American Medical Association Wednesday suggests that more than 1.5 million U.S. youngsters have undiagnosed high blood pressure, leaving them at risk for developing organ damage in their future life.
The study, led by Dr. David Kaelber of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Harvard Medical School, shows three quarters of the 2 million U.S. youngsters who are estimated to have high blood pressure don't realized the problem.
Among all of the 14,187 subjects aged three to eight, 507 (3.6 percent) are found to have a high blood pressure problem. But only 131 of them (26 percent) have a documented diagnosis.
The problem is usually ignored by most of doctors because they consider it as an adult problem, said Kaelber, "Hypertension in children is very underdiagnosed."
The effects of a high blood pressure problem in children are still uncertain but there is some evidence that it might cause early artery and heart damage in young patients.
"It was a very uncomfortable situation of telling parents, not only is your child overweight, but also your child has high blood pressure," Kaelber said. "They would get angry about this and say, 'How come other doctors I've been seeing have never told me about this?'"
Untreated high blood pressure can cause health problems in adults, including heart disease, strokes, artery damage and kidney disease, problems that usually take years to develop.
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The study, led by Dr. David Kaelber of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Harvard Medical School, shows three quarters of the 2 million U.S. youngsters who are estimated to have high blood pressure don't realized the problem.
Among all of the 14,187 subjects aged three to eight, 507 (3.6 percent) are found to have a high blood pressure problem. But only 131 of them (26 percent) have a documented diagnosis.
The problem is usually ignored by most of doctors because they consider it as an adult problem, said Kaelber, "Hypertension in children is very underdiagnosed."
The effects of a high blood pressure problem in children are still uncertain but there is some evidence that it might cause early artery and heart damage in young patients.
"It was a very uncomfortable situation of telling parents, not only is your child overweight, but also your child has high blood pressure," Kaelber said. "They would get angry about this and say, 'How come other doctors I've been seeing have never told me about this?'"
Untreated high blood pressure can cause health problems in adults, including heart disease, strokes, artery damage and kidney disease, problems that usually take years to develop.
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
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