Kid hypertension linked to poorer thinking

A U.S. researcher has linked hypertension in children with poorer thinking and working memory.

The study, published in Journal of Pediatrics, found children with high blood pressure also were not as good as children with normal blood pressure when it comes to complicated goal-directed tasks and not as adept at planning. Children with both high blood pressure and obesity also were likely to have anxiety and depression.

These results were very surprising to me, despite similar findings in adults, Dr. Marc Lande, a co-author from the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, said in a statement. Adults with hypertension often have other problems that might affect cognition such as chronic disease, smoking or alcohol use. However, children with hypertension usually do not have these comorbidities.

He said he also was surprised to find half the children with both hypertension and obesity demonstrated clinically significant anxiety and depression since those conditions were looked at only to rule out its interplay with cognitive function.

Children with only obesity or only hypertension did not have the anxiety and depression that children with both obesity and hypertension did, Lande said. With further study, screening for anxiety and depression could end up being routine when an obese child is diagnosed with hypertension.