Overview
- Prevalence rose from about 3.2% in 2000 to roughly 6.2% in 2020, affecting an estimated 114 million people under 19 worldwide.
- The analysis, published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, pooled 96 studies spanning more than 443,000 children across 21 countries.
- Measurement method changed estimates: confirmed in-office hypertension was ~4.3%, rising to ~6.7% when home or ambulatory readings were included; masked hypertension was ~9.2% and white-coat ~5.2%.
- Hypertension affected nearly 19% of children with obesity versus roughly 2–3% of healthy‑weight peers, and about 8.2% had prehypertension with levels peaking in early adolescence, especially in boys.
- Authors and experts call for expanded screening, prevention and policy action, noting regional variability, limited out-of-office data in some settings and heterogeneity across studies.