Effective ways to control heart disease in obese children in adulthood

Childhood is a window of opportunity to tackle obesity before the damage it causes is irreversible, according to a scientific statement by experts on heart disease and childhood obesity published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)

Childhood obesity and the associated problems of high blood pressure, blood lipids and blood glucose track into adulthood. For example, obese children are five times more likely to become obese adults than their healthy weight peers. The document emphasise the need to tackle obesity and the accompanying risk factors together, as having more than one problem compounds the likelihood of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adulthood. Compared to children with a low body mass index (BMI), those with a high BMI are 40% more likely to suffer from CVD in midlife. Children with a combination of risk factors including smoking and high BMI, blood pressure and blood lipids have a two- to nine-fold greater risk of heart attack and stroke in midlife.

Habits also track into adulthood, giving further impetus to the argument to intervene now. “Prevention of adult coronary heart disease through interventions in childhood is supported by the fact that dietary habits and food preferences are formed early in life and that family-related lifestyle and eating habits tend to be maintained throughout the life span,” states the paper.

The document points to the influence of the media on children’s diets. It notes: “Most children are exposed to promotion and marketing of products such as fast food and sugar-sweetened beverages up to about 200 times per week on social media.” The authors state that marketing of unhealthy food and drink should be minimised or prohibited, especially in schools, since it influences children’s behavior.

Reference: How to stop obese children having heart disease in adulthood; European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, DOI:10.1093/eurjpc/zwad152