Contemporary approaches to the diagnosis of arterial hypertension in young adults

Abstract

Arterial hypertension (AH) is a major modifiable determinant of cardiovascular health, increasingly recognized among young adults and associated with a substantial lifetime burden of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The 2024 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Guidelines define young adulthood as the period from 18 to 40 years and emphasize the increasing prevalence and clinical relevance of elevated blood pressure (BP) in this population. Epidemiological data from a nationwide Swedish study involving more than 1.7 million 18-year-old men demonstrated an increase in the prevalence of hypertension over several decades, underscoring the importance of early detection of elevated BP. The global cardiovascular burden attributable to hypertension has also increased substantially, with hypertension-related cardiovascular mortality and disability contributing significantly to the overall disease burden between 1990 and 2019.