Children that do not get much exercise are almost 30% more likely to be hypertensive, a condition that puts them at major risk of further problems in adulthood. This was the result of a study that followed over 5,000 European children, initially aged 2 to 9, over the course of two years. The work was a part of the doctoral studies of Augusto César de Moraes at the University of São Paulo School of Medicine (FM-USP) and the University of Zaragoza (Spain), and was conducted within the purview of an international consortium of 20 institutions from 10 countries (International Journal of Cardiology, February 2015) Among the examined children, the strongest contributing factors to the establishment of hypertension were sedentary behavior (more than two hours of inactivity per day) and lack of physical exercise (one hour per day is the minimum recommended). Moraes is planning to start a similar study in South America by the end of 2015, in a project that he will coordinate jointly with his PhD advisers Heráclito Carvalho (FM-USP) and Luis Moreno (University of Zaragoza).
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