We have a very informative journal article to share with you today. As researchers of the National Children's Study, most of us are aware of the overwhelming attack on our nation's children. These attacks include everything from obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Please take a moment and read the article and remember that as John F. Kennedy reminded us in his powerful statement:
“Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.”
June 18, 2012
-- The number of young people sent to the hospital for high blood pressure rose
steeply during a recent 10-year period, according to a new study published
online in the journal Hypertension.
Hospital
stays for Americans ages 18 and under due to high blood pressure nearly doubled
from 12,661 in 1997 to 24,602 in 2006. The study shows that high blood pressure
in young people comes with a high cost for the nation today and is setting the
stage for serious health problems in the future, experts tell WebMD.
A Costly Problem
Linked to Obesity
A central
discovery in the study goes beyond the obvious health cost to the children and
highlights the actual cost of treating high blood pressure in young people,
says researcher Cheryl Tran, MD, of the University of Michigan. During this
time period, these hospital stays cost $3.1 billion. The average charges for
treating these young people in the hospital rose by 50%.
One of the
key reasons given by researchers for this trend: obesity. According to the CDC,
roughly 17% of kids and teens are now obese. Their numbers have grown steeply
in recent decades. Children who are obese are more likely to have high blood
pressure, according to the CDC.
In their
study, the researchers point out that high blood pressure in kids is growing
more common. It now affects up to 3% of American children. When the researchers
looked at the hospital records of the young people, only 9.3% of the claims
with high blood pressure also made a reference to obesity. But it's possible
that more of the kids and teens were obese, but their records didn't make note
of it, Tran says. The database they used for the study didn't contain
information on the young people's body mass indexes.
Signs of Health
Problems to Come
In an editorial
published along with the study, Joshua Samuels, MD, of the University of Texas,
writes that the "significant increases in blood pressure are likely riding
the wave of pediatric obesity that is spreading across America." High
blood pressure affects more kids than other problems that get more attention,
such as autism or epilepsy, he writes.
Even in kids,
high blood pressure can cause damage, Samuels writes, including changes in the
heart. And high blood pressure often follows children into their adult years,
putting them at risk of heart disease and stroke.
For Suzanne
Steinbaum, DO, the study emphasizes the perils of America's weight issues.
"I actually got into an argument with a cabdriver this morning" about
the proposed plan to limit sodas in New York City, says Steinbaum, a preventive
cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.
"This
could be a huge wake-up call. When I read an article like this, I feel like
standing on the buildings in New York City and screaming. Children are getting
sicker and sicker as they're getting more obese. There's going to be a huge
increase in heart disease and health care costs because of this," she
tells WebMD.
"Children
who have hypertension usually become adults with hypertension. And children who
are obese usually become obese adults, with all the chronic conditions
associated with that."
By Eric Metcalf, MPH
WebMD Health News
