According to a recent study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, high blood pressure in childhood can lead to higher blood pressure or hypertension in adulthood. The research has shown that children who have high blood pressure often grown up to have high blood pressure as adults.

Monitoring blood pressure in children is therefore extremely important. Detecting high blood pressure early will allow doctors to treat it early, which could eventually prevent hypertension and in turn, prevent the diseases associated with hypertension later in life. Studies have shown that even slight high blood pressure in adults increases their chances of developing cardiovascular disease considerably.

Older children and teenagers who have high blood pressure seem to have a particularly strong chance of developing high blood pressure when they reach adulthood. Hypertension in children is very closely linked with obesity and diabetes. Children who do not have a healthy diet and do not engage in much physical activity tend to develop high blood pressure. Often, changes in their lifestyle can help to reduce their hypertension, and is recommended rather than blood pressure medication which can be dangerous if the dosages are not exact, and can have undesirable side effects.