Hypertension, or elevated blood pressure (BP), is an important cardiovascular risk across the life
course. Hypertension in childhood is associated with hypertension in adulthood and early markers of
cardiovascular diseases. The measurement of childhood hypertension is complicated. According to
the fourth report from the National High Blood Pressure Education Program (NHBPEP) Working
Group in the United States, childhood hypertension is defined as a high BP on at least three separate
occasions based on age-, sex-, and body size-specific cutoffs of BP. With the definition of childhood
hypertension by NHBPEP, childhood hypertension is estimated to affect 4.0% of children aged 7-18
years worldwide.
The etiology and underlying mechanisms vary in different phenotypes (systolic hypertension,
diastolic hypertension, isolated systolic hypertension, isolated diastolic hypertension, or systolic-
diastolic hypertension) or severities (prehypertension, stage 1, or stage 2 hypertension) of childhood
hypertension. Due to the insufficiency of high-quality epidemiologic investigations on childhood
hypertension that have measured BP on at least three separate occasions, the epidemiology of
childhood hypertension phenotypes and severities are not well established, especially within the
Region of the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean Region, Southeast Asia Region, and Western Pacific
Region. Therefore, epidemiological research in the area of childhood hypertension will help to refine
this issue of concern.
This Research Topic aims to provide an up-to-date overview about the epidemiology, risk factors of
childhood hypertension, to enforce our understanding about the significance and to inform
management of hypertensive children. We welcome primary research articles, up-to-date reviews, and
other available article types in the research area of childhood hypertension.
