Abstract P287: The Rising Trend of Hypertension in Pediatric and Adolescent Patients

Abstract

Background: A concerning trend in society today is the development of lifelong diseases, such as hypertension, at an early age. The sequelae of prolonged uncontrolled hypertension are devastating and include the development of vascular disease, kidney disease, and ultimately increased mortality among other things. Though it is thought that today’s children are affected by chronic conditions such as hypertension more frequently than in previous generations, this has not been thoroughly analyzed. This study aimed to evaluate incidence of hypertension, as well as mortality rates in patients with a diagnosis of hypertension in 2 different hospitalized patient populations, children ages 0-12 and adolescents ages 13-18 over the course of a 7-year period from 2005-2012. Methods: An NIS database was queried from 2005-2012. Exclusion criteria included patients greater than >18 years old and patients with secondary causes of hypertension, as this study was looking at essential hypertension only. Analysis was performed via chi square or t test with SAS 9.4, all values were significant when p<0.05. Results: As per our analysis, the incidence of hypertension in the pediatric populations had a decline in 2006, but since then it has been on the rise while hypertension in the adolescent age group showed a consistent upward trend. Furthermore, our data also revealed that the incidence of hypertension was highest in the Caucasian race in comparison to the other races, with a p-value of < 0.001. Lastly, the likelihood of mortality in hospitalized pediatric populations with a diagnosis of hypertension was 2.03 while in adolescents it was 0.84 with a p value of <0.001. Discussion: It is thought that the increase in incidence of hypertension in these patient populations could potentially be due to the high sodium, high fat, and low fiber diets of most American citizens. It is well documented that obesity is an epidemic in the youth of America and we believe an analysis of the correlation between hypertension and obesity in these patient populations is warranted, as it is possible that dietary modification in these patients could result in a lower incidence of hypertension, and thus lower mortality and morbidity rates.