In 2005-08, 3.5 percent of children and adolescents aged 8 to 17 years had high blood pressure/hypertension. According to Healthy People 2020 (HDS 5.2) healthcare providers should strive to achieve best evidence-based practice to reduce the proportion of children and adolescents with hypertension.
In 2010, 5.2 million (31%) strokes were in children (aged 20 years old and younger) and young and middle-aged adults (20-64 years), to which children and young and middle-aged adults from low-income and middle-income countries contributed almost 74,000 (89%) and 4 million (78%), respectively, of the burden. Researchers warn that without effective global preventative strategies, this figure will likely continue to rise.
About Us:
The Take2Heart initiative includes promoting innovations to identify children and adolescents who are now at cardiac risk, ensuring the children and adolescents at risk receive appropriate education and treatment, help reduce the need for blood pressure and cholesterol treatment, help reduce obesity and malnutrition by promoting a healthy diet, promote physical activity, and to support a drug-free environment to reduce the future of cardiac risk.
The Take2Heart initiative aims to increase the awareness of pediatric hypertension by:
- Assessing the under-diagnosis of pediatric hypertension
- Identifying the disease burden of pediatric hypertension
- Demonstrating biometric screenings and assessments of pediatric hypertension
- Identifying variables needed to interpret a BP measurement
- Interpreting an accurate BP measurement using the Smartphone application Pedia BP or traditional tables
- Implementing sample treatment protocol for pediatric hypertension
- Process and deliver data in real-time with CSV Server
- Providing patient and family education handout and pedometers
- Exploring key partnerships
The Take2Heart initiative will focus on the challenge we face about the information needed to better assess and manage hypertension, to explore the challenge of interpreting a pediatric BP measurement and the use of technology to simplify the interpretation process, to develop critical thinking skills to implement BP management protocol, and to encourage health care providers to report prevalence of pediatric hypertension,
Our Mission:
The goal of the Take2Heart Program is for every child and adolescent to receive an accurate blood pressure reading each year, and in doing so, lower the cardiac risk of pediatric patients.