High blood pressure is not necessarily a problem that begins in adulthood -- kids can have it too. Yet testing children for high blood pressure isn't routine. Maybe it should be.
Researchers recently embarked on a comprehensive screening program of kids in West Virginia, where a higher-than-average number of people die from heart disease. The Coronary Artery Risk Detection in Appalachian Communities, or CARDIAC, project found that 1 in 5 of the 62,000 fifth-graders tested at school had high blood pressure, a risk factor for heart disease. While researchers cautioned that such screenings "do not diagnose," the findings do point to the need for ongoing assessments.
