Longevity & AgingTeen Blood Pressure Predicts Heart Disease Risk Before Age 50
A cohort study of over 902,000 adolescents found that higher blood pressure during the teenage years strongly predicts cardiovascular disease before age 50. Researchers followed participants for more than 18 million person-years and recorded over 6,300 cardiovascular events. Compared to teens with normal blood pressure, those with Stage 1 hypertension faced 14% higher risk, Stage 2 faced 31% higher risk, and those with a clinical hypertension diagnosis faced a striking 142% higher risk. Diastolic blood pressure was especially predictive in the Stage 1 category. These findings suggest current adolescent blood pressure guidelines, largely based on expert consensus rather than long-term outcome data, may need updating to better capture cardiovascular risk starting in youth.
