Heart risk identified at age of 9
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PrintScreening can begin as early as 9 years old, to find those people who could develop heart disease when they are older. This information comes from a newly published report in Circulation 2010.
Childhood risk factors like:
- total cholesterol
- triglycerides
- blood pressure
- body-mass index (which indicates being overweight)
were found to be predictive of carotid intima media thickness. This means: the children who were found to have the elevated risks noted above had an ultrasound of their neck as an adult, and were found to have artery changes. The changes in the artery are signs that heart and vascular disease has begun.
To read the full article in Heartwire: http://tinyurl.com/25m33rl
Key points to take away:
- High blood pressure and high cholesterol are strongly related to obesity
- To prevent obese children: encourage active play time and healthy eating
- Good eating habits as children will help prevent disease as an adult
Research study:
Juonala M, Magnussen CG, Venn A, et al. Influence of age and associations between childhood risk factors and carotid IMT in adulthood. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study, the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health study, the Bogalusa Heart Study, and the Muscatine Study for the International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort (i3C) Consortium. Circulation 2010; DOI:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.966465. Available at: http://circ.ahajournals.org.
