Obesity has been a rising problem for many decades. When it comes to obesity rates in the US, 17% of children and teens are obese. There are many issues that can stem from obesity at such a young age and researchers are now finding a link between obesity and high blood pressure.
In the study, researchers used data from over 700,000 teens ranging from age 16 to 20 years old. For teens, the BMI had to be over 25 kg/m2 to be considered obese. When taking the blood pressure of the teens, there were both the systolic and diastolic numbers monitored.
The results of the study showed that there was a link to BMI and blood pressure that could become more of an issue later. Also indicated was that females had a more direct link between the two conditions than males did.