The Robert Koch Institute (RKI): main building in Berlin. more
Germany’s Public Health institute RKI monitors the population’s health and wellbeing. more
The Robert Koch Institute is the German government's central institution for the identification, surveillance and prevention of infectious diseases in the Portfolio of the German Ministry of Health. more
High blood pressure (hypertension) can lead to cardiovascular disease and renal failure. Throughout the world, 9.4 million deaths per year can be attributed to high blood pressure. This makes hypertension the most significant modifiable risk factor for mortality.
The leading risk factors for high blood pressure are a lack of physical exercise, overweight, an unhealthy diet, stress and high alcohol consumption. Since these lifestyle factors can be changed, there is great potential for preventing high blood pressure.
Blood pressure in children is lower than in adults. However, it is a determining factor for the further development of blood pressure in the course of a person’s life, and is therefore the subject of increasing attention in prevention research.
At Robert Koch Institute, a number of research projects cover the development and influencing factors of high blood pressure in adults in Germany. Interaction with other cardiovascular risk factors, healthcare and regional differences remain of interest here. A methodical project deals with comparison of different blood pressure monitors.
For the first time, German reference percentiles have been published on the resting blood pressure of children according to height, age and sex. These were based on data from the KiGGS basic survey 2003–2006.
