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Blood pressure levels in American children and adolescents are rising, according to a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association .

The rise may be due to changes in children's exercise and eating habits, and to the growing number of overweight and obese kids, researchers said.

The study was conducted by researchers from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and Tulane University. It involved data collected from more than 5,000 children between ages 8 and 17 in the 1988 to 1994 and 1999 to 2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.

Researchers found that between those survey periods, the percentage of overweight children rose from 12 percent to 16 percent. At the same time, systolic blood pressure (the first number in a blood pressure reading that measures pressure when the heart is beating) rose an average of 1.4 points and diastolic pressure (the pressure when the heart is at rest) rose an average of 3.3 points.

Though the blood pressure increases seem small, they are significant. Previous research suggests that for each one to two point increase in systolic blood pressure, children face a 10 percent greater chance of developing high blood pressure (hypertension) as an adult. And with that comes an increased risk for heart disease and stroke.

The NHLBI plans to release new guidelines for dealing with hypertension and prehypertension in children this summer.