Study: 19% Young Adults in U.S. Has High Blood Pressure

The study indicates that many young adults are at risk of developing heart disease, but are unaware that they have hypertension.

According to a new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the number of young adults in the United States with high blood pressure may be much higher than previously reported. The findings were published in the journal Epidemiology.

Researchers analyzed data on more than 14,000 men and women between 24 and 32 years old in 2008 from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, known as Add Health. They found 19 percent had elevated blood pressure, also referred to as hypertension. Only about half of the participants with elevated blood pressure had ever been told by a health-care provider that they had the condition.