Resting pulse rates of UK children on the rise

The resting pulse rate of UK pre-teens may have risen by up to two beats a minute during the past 30 years. However, the rise does not seem to be linked to the overall weight gain seen in this age group during this period, according to research by UCL academics published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood . While this rise may seem modest, resting pulse rate is a proxy for general physical fitness and cardiovascular health, say the authors who are based at the UCL Institute of Child Health. And it could translate into higher risks of diabetes and heart disease in later life, they warn. They base their findings on serial resting pulse rate measurements of almost 23,000 UK children between the ages of 9 and 11, who were part of five studies/surveys between 1980 and 2008. These included The 1970 British birth cohort; The Brompton cohort; The Two Towns Study; The Ten Towns Study; and the annual Health Survey for England (1995-8, 2002, 2006-8). Overall, average pulse rate was higher in girls at 82.2 beats per minute (bpm) than in boys (78.7 bpm).