Hospitalizations for children with hypertension and related charges dramatically increased during a 10-year period ending in 2006, according to a study.
Researchers said the nationally-based study is the first to examine hypertension hospitalizations in children.
Although the researchers expected a rise in hospitalizations due to the increased frequency of hypertension in children, "the economic burden created by inpatient childhood high blood pressure was surprising," Cheryl Tran, MD, the study’s lead author and pediatric nephrology fellow in the Department of Pediatric Nephrology at the University of Michigan, said in a news release.
After obtaining discharge records from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Kids’ Inpatient Database from 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006, researchers found:
• Pediatric hypertension-related hospitalizations in the United States nearly doubled, from 12,661 in 1997 to 24,602 in 2006.
• Charges for inpatient care for hypertensive children increased by 50%, reaching an estimated $3.1 billion. That total does not include outpatient charges, a figure that remains unknown on a national level.
• The most significant increases in healthcare charges were for children with hypertension and end-stage kidney disease.
• The average length of stay for children with hypertension — eight days — was double that of children without the condition.
The researchers hypothesized that the increasing hospitalizations may be due in part to the rise in childhood obesity. Children hospitalized with hypertension were more likely to be older than 9, male, African-American and treated in a teaching hospital.
When hypertension was the primary diagnosis, convulsive disorder, headache, obesity and systemic lupus erythematosus were the most common secondary diagnoses. When hypertension was part of a diagnosis, the most common primary diagnoses were lupus, complications of kidney transplant, pneumonia and acute proliferative glomerulonephritis, a condition in the kidney that causes inflammation and can result in hypertension.
Clinicians should address healthy lifestyle habits during children’s well visits to reduce hypertension, Tran said.
"A child with high blood pressure is at increased risk for having high blood pressure in adulthood and the heart and stroke risks that come with that diagnosis," she said.
Hypertension is present in 1% to 3% of children in the United States. Among children ages 2 to 19, 31.7% are overweight (23.6 million) and 16.9% are obese (12.6 million), according to American Heart Association statistics.
The study appeared June 18 on the website of Hypertension, a journal of the American Heart Association. To read the abstract and download a PDF of the study, visit http://bit.ly/NMYUTO.
Researchers said the nationally-based study is the first to examine hypertension hospitalizations in children.
Although the researchers expected a rise in hospitalizations due to the increased frequency of hypertension in children, "the economic burden created by inpatient childhood high blood pressure was surprising," Cheryl Tran, MD, the study’s lead author and pediatric nephrology fellow in the Department of Pediatric Nephrology at the University of Michigan, said in a news release.
After obtaining discharge records from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Kids’ Inpatient Database from 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006, researchers found:
• Pediatric hypertension-related hospitalizations in the United States nearly doubled, from 12,661 in 1997 to 24,602 in 2006.
• Charges for inpatient care for hypertensive children increased by 50%, reaching an estimated $3.1 billion. That total does not include outpatient charges, a figure that remains unknown on a national level.
• The most significant increases in healthcare charges were for children with hypertension and end-stage kidney disease.
• The average length of stay for children with hypertension — eight days — was double that of children without the condition.
The researchers hypothesized that the increasing hospitalizations may be due in part to the rise in childhood obesity. Children hospitalized with hypertension were more likely to be older than 9, male, African-American and treated in a teaching hospital.
When hypertension was the primary diagnosis, convulsive disorder, headache, obesity and systemic lupus erythematosus were the most common secondary diagnoses. When hypertension was part of a diagnosis, the most common primary diagnoses were lupus, complications of kidney transplant, pneumonia and acute proliferative glomerulonephritis, a condition in the kidney that causes inflammation and can result in hypertension.
Clinicians should address healthy lifestyle habits during children’s well visits to reduce hypertension, Tran said.
"A child with high blood pressure is at increased risk for having high blood pressure in adulthood and the heart and stroke risks that come with that diagnosis," she said.
Hypertension is present in 1% to 3% of children in the United States. Among children ages 2 to 19, 31.7% are overweight (23.6 million) and 16.9% are obese (12.6 million), according to American Heart Association statistics.
The study appeared June 18 on the website of Hypertension, a journal of the American Heart Association. To read the abstract and download a PDF of the study, visit http://bit.ly/NMYUTO.
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