The number of young adults in the United States with
high blood pressure may be much higher than previously reported,
according to a new study by researchers at the University of North
Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill.
Researchers analyzed data on more than 14,000 men and women between
24 and 32 years old in 2008 from the National Longitudinal Study of
Adolescent Health,
known as Add Health. They found 19 percent had
elevated blood pressure, also referred to as hypertension. Only about
half of the participants with elevated blood pressure had ever been
told by a health-care provider that they had the condition.
"The findings are significant because they indicate that many young
adults are at risk of developing heart disease, but are unaware that
they have hypertension," said Quynh Nguyen, a doctoral student at UNC's
Gillings School of Global Public Health and the study's lead author.
Hypertension is a strong risk factor for stroke and coronary heart
disease, the leading cause of death for adults in the United States.
The findings were published this week in the journal Epidemiology.
Kathleen Mullan Harris, Add Health's principal investigator and a
co-author of the paper, said the findings were noteworthy because they
were from the first nationally representative, field- based study of
blood pressure to focus on young adults.
"The message is clear," said Harris. "Young adults and the medical
professionals they visit shouldn't assume they're not old enough to
have high blood pressure. This is a condition that leads to chronic
illness, premature death and costly medical treatment." Xinhua
