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Heart Disease Risk Established at Early Age |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: The earlier in life children reach their lowest body mass index (BMI) signals potential heart disease risk factors and may become evident as early as age 7, researchers reported at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2007. Researchers studied "BMI rebound age" --- the age at which BMI reaches its lowest point before increasing through later childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The new study, one of the first of its kind, investigated BMI rebound age in 308 children, 158 boys and 150 girls, beginning at age 3 and looked at adverse cardiovascular risk effects at age 7. "The study implies that girls may have earlier BMI rebound age than boys," Kimball said. "Earlier rebound age correlates with greater likelihood to become obese adults, so girls may be more at risk to become obese adults." Jennifer Jaworski, lead author of the study and a third-year medical student at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Ohio, said she and her colleagues found statistically significant differences between children in the 25th percentile BMI rebound age and those in the 75th percentile of BMI rebound age. Prevalence of overweight children in the United States is increasing, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES): in 2003--04, an estimated 17 percent of children 2 to 19 years old and 18.8 percent of children ages 6 to 11 were overweight (an increase from 16.3 percent in 2001--02). Editor's Note: To combat the growing epidemic of childhood obesity, the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation joined together to form the Alliance for a Healthier Generation in 2005.
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