Key result
Obesity affects approximately 20% of US adolescents and is associated with a higher prevalence of hypertension, requiring confirmation, diagnostic work-up, and weight loss as primary therapy.
Management of obesity-related hypertension in adolescents should focus on weight loss and, if indicated, antihypertensive medications to reduce future cardiovascular risk.
Supports weight loss focus to curb future CV risk in obese hypertensive adolescents; leaves open optimal pharmacologic thresholds from Level 5 data.
The prevalence of hypertension among all adolescents is approximately 3.5%, with somewhat higher rates of prehypertension. Obesity affects approximately 20% of adolescents in the United States, and the prevalence of hypertension is much higher among obese adolescents compared with nonobese adolescents. As in other populations, the evaluation of elevated blood pressure in obese adolescents should begin with a confirmation of the blood pressure elevation, followed by a focused diagnostic work-up to detect possible secondary causes of hypertension. Primary therapy for obesity-related hypertension in adolescents begins with weight loss, and may include antihypertensive medications if target-organ damage or other indications for drug therapy are present. The emphasis of management should be reduction of future cardiovascular risk.
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Flynn et al. (2011) conducted a review in Obesity-related hypertension. Obesity affects approximately 20% of US adolescents and is associated with a higher prevalence of hypertension, requiring confirmation, diagnostic work-up, and weight loss as primary therapy.
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