High blood pressure in childhood may indicate a risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease in adulthood. This conclusion was reached by researchers at the Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. The findings of their study were published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, reports Heart.org.

The researchers used the National Death Index to follow up on the survival or cause of death as of 2016 for approximately 38,000 children who had their blood pressures taken at age 7 years as part of the Collaborative Perinatal Project (CPP), the largest US study to document the influence of pregnancy and post-natal factors on the health of children.

Blood pressure measured in the children at age 7 years were converted to age-, sex-, and height-specific percentiles according to the American Academy of Pediatrics clinical practice guidelines. 

The analysis accounted for demographic factors as well as for childhood body mass index.

By 2016, a total of 2,837 participants had died, with 504 of those deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease.

It turned out that people with high blood pressure in childhood were more likely to die from cardiovascular complications before the age of 50.

Moderate elevations in blood pressure were also important, even among children whose blood pressure was still within the normal range. Children who had blood pressures that were moderately higher than average had a 13% (for systolic) and 18% (for diastolic) higher risk of premature cardiovascular death.

The risk was highest for children whose blood pressure measurements were in the top 10% for their age, sex, and height.

The link remained even after taking into account environmental and hereditary factors.

Analysis of the 150 clusters of siblings in the CPP found that children with the higher blood pressure at age 7 had similar increases in risk of cardiovascular death when compared to their siblings with the lower blood pressure readings.