Action Needed To Prevent Poor Heart Health In Children, Says American Heart Association

16 Aug 2016 --- A new scientific statement from the American Heart Association has suggested that a ‘life approach’ needs to be taken to prevent children from developing poor heart health into adulthood.

The statement says heart health in children is declining due to the consumption of high-calorie, low-nutrition food combined with little exercise.

The new research looked at seven key health factors and behaviors to determine whether a child’s cardiovascular health was at risk. These included the use of tobacco products, whether the child maintained a healthy body weight, if they achieved at least 60 minutes of exercise per day, if they ate a healthy diet as well as if they had healthy cholesterol, blood pressure and blood glucose levels.

The results found that about 91 per cent children scored poorly on diet measures, with children aged between 2 to 19 years old getting the majority of their daily calories from simple carbohydrates such as sugary desserts and beverages. 

Additionally, the study saw that the level of physical activity was generally low, allowing the effects of poor diet and physical inactivity to affect body weight, resulting in a high percentage of obesity. Surprisingly, among these older children, the rate of cigarette smoking was also high.

Despite negative results recorded in diet and exercise, the study did find that the healthiest metric for children was blood pressure, with nearly all children recording figures in the ‘ideal’ group. Most children also had ideal measurements for total blood cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

However, the American Heart Association suggests that the findings overall indicate that much of the benefit of ideal cardiovascular health factors is lost in childhood and adolescence. This is due in large part to the adoption of unhealthful diet and physical activity behaviors during childhood, suggesting that many children born healthy will, unfortunately, develop unhealthy behavioral patterns early in life. 

The statement highlighted the need for children to engage in ideal health behaviors early in life, in order for them to have a beneficial impact on all of the health factors. 

This ‘life course approach’ focuses on assisting children to maintain the standards of ideal cardiovascular health early in life (primordial prevention) instead of taking a “wait and see” approach by addressing or treating health and risk factors later in adulthood when they have become entrenched.