Overview
- A meta-analysis in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health pooling 96 studies of more than 443,000 participants across 21 countries found prevalence rose from about 3.2% in 2000 to over 6.2% in 2020, affecting roughly 114 million young people.
- How blood pressure is measured changes estimates, with about 4.3% confirmed over three in-office visits versus roughly 6.7% when ambulatory or home monitoring is included.
- Masked hypertension was estimated at approximately 9.2% and white-coat hypertension at about 5.2%, pointing to substantial underdiagnosis and misclassification with office-only readings.
- About 19% of children and adolescents with obesity have hypertension compared with around 2.4% at a healthy weight, indicating an almost eightfold higher risk.
- Prehypertension affects an estimated 8.2% of youths and roughly 11.8% of teenagers, with blood pressure peaking around age 14, prompting calls for harmonized diagnostics, wider out-of-office monitoring, and prevention policies focused on healthy weight.