Background Hypertension today became one of the most important health problems in children and adolescents. Fortunately, it has been proved that early performed educational intervention, non-pharmacological and pharmacological therapy, as well as regular monitoring of status, significantly reduces future cardiovascular risk in adult age.
The aim of the paper was to assess the effectiveness of hypertension therapy in young people with primary hypertension during 10 years observation and therapy
Material and methods 86 patients of The Youth Hypertension Outpatient Clinic in Poznań in the study were included. All the suffered from essential hypertension and became patients of the Clinic during years: 1990-1994 and continued treatment in this Clinic and then in The Adult Youth Hypertension Outpatient Clinic for the next 10 years. Blood pressure values were measured at the starting visits in all the analyzed age ranges and including gender. Effectiveness of the 10 years long antihypertensive therapy was assessed. Parameters such as systolic and diastolic blood pressure were characterized by using arithmetical mean and standard deviation, maximum and minimum values.
Results Mean systolic blood pressure values both in boys and girls in the analyzed age ranges were highest in the group of 17 years old boys and girls (143.3 ± 8.2 mm Hg in girls and 145.0 ± 7.8 mm Hg boys). Mean diastolic blood pressure values were highest in the group of 17-years old girls - 88.3 ± 9.8 mm Hg and 15- and 17-year old boys: 85.0 ± 9.1 mm Hg and 85.1 ± 8.0 mm Hg respectively. The percent value of subjects with optimal, normal or high-normal blood pressure, was 51.2% for systolic and 76.7% for diastolic blood pressure.
Conclusions 1. Treatment of young hypertensives should include nonpharmacological intervention as well as pharmacological therapy and should begin immediately after the disease has been discovered.
2. Continuous lifestyle modification, mainly nonpharmacological intervention allowed to reach higher effectiveness of hypertension treatment.