Adolescents who have high blood pressure are twice as likely to develop serious kidney disease by middle age as teens who don’t, an Israeli study suggests.
The researchers followed almost 2.7 million teens over about two decades starting when they were 17 years old, on average. Nearly 8,000 of the teens, or about 0.3 percent, had high blood pressure but none had signs of kidney disease or damage.
By the end of the study period, about 2,200 people developed end stage renal disease (ESRD), which is kidney damage so advanced that patients typically need dialysis or a transplant to stay alive.
After researchers accounted for other factors that can contribute to ESRD – like age, education levels and obesity – those with high blood pressure, or hypertension, as teens were still twice as likely to develop this chronic kidney disorder by middle age.