High blood pressure common in young athletes at single-visit screening event
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Key takeaways:
- More than 40% of young athletes at a single-visit screening had prehypertension or hypertension.
- The prevalence of hypertension varied by race/ethnicity, sex and sport.
More than 40% of young athletes who participated in a single-visit screening program had prehypertension or hypertension, according to data presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Care of the Athletic Heart conference.
“The study highlights the importance of recognizing and addressing elevated blood pressure in young athletes,” Aneeq Malik, MD, an internal medicine physician at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles and medical director of the Saving Hearts Foundation, who presented the findings, said in a press release. “Despite being perceived as a generally healthy population, young athletes are not immune to heart disease, including elevated blood pressure. The findings emphasize that screening for hypertension should be a routine part of sports physicals and that confirmatory testing is needed to accurately diagnose the condition.”
Malik and colleagues analyzed data from 1,196 young athletes (40% female) who had BP recorded at a community-based athlete screening program in the Los Angeles area from October 2018 to October 2022. BP readings were defined according to the definitions of hypertension according to the 2017 ACC/American Heart Association hypertension guideline: systolic BP 120 mm Hg to 129 mm Hg for prehypertension, systolic BP 130 mm Hg to 139 mm Hg for stage I hypertension and systolic BP 140 mm Hg or more for stage II hypertension.
Among the cohort, prehypertension was prevalent in 21.3%, stage I hypertension in 13.2% and stage II hypertension in 8%, according to the researchers.
Compared with females, males were more likely to have stage I hypertension (17.3% vs. 7.1%) and stage II hypertension (10.9% vs. 3.8%), Malik and colleagues found.
The rates of hypertension were highest in those identifying as “other” ethnicity (37.2%), followed by Black participants (24.3%), Hispanic participants (23.5%), Asian participants (20.8%) and white participants (18.7%), according to the researchers.
By sport, hypertension rates were highest in those participating in multiple sports (28.3%), basketball (27.6%) and football (27.1%), Malik and colleagues found.
After a single-visit screening, hypertension needs to be confirmed by being measured under controlled conditions, the authors wrote in an abstract.
“Once hypertension is confirmed, educating young athletes and their families about the diagnosis becomes paramount. Appropriate lifestyle interventions, such as dietary adjustments and counseling on supplement use, increased physical activity, healthy sleep behavior and stress management, should be implemented along with routine monitoring,” Malik said in the release. “Ultimately, increasing awareness and education about hypertension in this population will help ensure that young athletes receive the care and support they need to maintain optimal cardiovascular health.”
Reference:
- Study: Young athletes at risk for elevated blood pressure rates, future cardiovascular complications. https://www.acc.org/About-ACC/Press-Releases/2024/06/06/16/25/Study-Young-Athletes-at-Risk-for-Elevated-Blood-Pressure-Rates-Future-Cardiovascular-Complications. Published June 6, 2024. Accessed June 28, 2024.
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Malik A, et al. Abstract 41. Presented at: Care of the Athletic Heart; June 6-8, 2024; Washington, D.C.
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