Australian children are developing high blood pressure at alarming rates, with experts saying the condition could be setting kids up for heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease later in life.
Australia’s first-ever clinical guidelines on childhood hypertension aim to address findings that some primary school children already have signs of developing heart damage.
The guidelines were developed by Edith Cowan University’s (ECU) Nutrition and Health Innovation Research Institute (NHIR) and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in partnership with Hypertension Australia.
Experts are calling for blood pressure checks to become a routine part of childhood healthcare starting at the age of seven.
“We regularly see children as young as 7 and 8 years old with high blood pressure who already have organ damage, including thickening of the heart muscle,” ECU’s Dr Nicholas Larkins said.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1136176