Abstract P188: Prevalence of AHA Pediatric Risk Categories in Youth with Hypertension Disorders: a SUPERHERO Analysis

Abstract

Background: Cardiovascular (CV) risk factors in childhood contribute to the development of CV disease (CVD) later in life. In higher risk groups of youth, increased risk of CV events begins early in adulthood. The American Heart Association (AHA) 2019 CV Risk Reduction in High-Risk Pediatric Patients scientific statement uses medical diagnoses and CV health factors to classify patients into High, Moderate, and At-risk categories. The prevalence of these risk categories in youth with hypertension (HTN) disorders is unknown. Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of baseline electronic health record data from youth referred for HTN disorders in the multisite retrospective SUPERHERO Registry. Inclusion criteria were age <19 years and index subspecialty clinic visit for a HTN disorder by ICD-10 codes from 1/1/2015–12/31/2023. Exclusion criteria were kidney failure on dialysis, kidney transplantation, or pregnancy by ICD-10 codes. We report prevalence of AHA Pediatric Risk Category (High, Moderate, At-risk). We used clinic BP and 2017 AAP Clinical Practice Guidelines to define HTN, clinic BMI percentile to define obesity, and ICD-10 codes to define other risk category medical diagnoses. We report frequencies and proportions in this descriptive analysis. Results: Of 9356 participants, 3544 (37.9%) were female and 5464 (58.4%) were ≥13 years. At the index visit, 5563 participants (63.5%) were hypertensive. A total of 634 participants (6.8%) were classified as High risk, 6100 participants (65.2%) as Moderate risk, and 1034 participants (11.1%) were in the At-risk group. There were 1588 participants (17.0%) not classified into a risk category with available data. Conclusions: In a large cohort of youth with HTN disorders, we found that over 80% of participants were in an AHA pediatric risk category with 63.5% of participants having either primary or secondary HTN. Our findings suggest that if only HTN is used to identify youth at early CV risk, we will miss youth who may benefit from early CV health factor intervention. Next steps include confirming our findings using laboratory and prescription data in defining risk categories and investigating the association of AHA pediatric risk category with target organ injury using laboratory and echocardiogram data.