Obesity Hypertension in Children

Obesity has become an increasingly important medical problem in children and adolescents. In national surveys from the 1960s to the 1990s, the prevalence of overweight in children grew from 5% to 11%. Outcomes related to childhood obesity include hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, left ventricular hypertrophy, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, obstructive sleep apnea, orthopedic problems, and psychosocial problems. Once considered rare, primary hypertension in children has become increasingly common in association with obesity and other risk factors, including a family history of hypertension and an ethnic predisposition to hypertensive disease. Obese children are at approximately a 3-fold…