Never Too Late to Adopt Healthy Habits

In the CARDIA cohort, young adults who acquired or dropped healthy lifestyle factors had concordant increases or decreases in markers of atherosclerosis.

Can making health behavior changes as an adult improve coronary artery disease risk? Investigators for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute–sponsored, prospective CARDIA cohort study assessed five healthy lifestyle factors (HLFs) (not being overweight or obese, having a low alcohol intake, eating a healthy diet, being physically active, and not smoking) among some 3500 young adults between ages 18 and 30. HLFs were assessed again 20 years later to determine whether the change from year 0 to 20 as a continuous composite HLF score (range, −5 to +5) was associated with coronary calcification (CAC) and carotid intima–media thickness (IMT) at year 20, after adjustment for demographics, medications, and baseline HLFs.

Over the 20-year per…

Reviewing Author

JoAnne M. Foody

Disclosures

Consultant / Advisory boardAegerion; Amarin; Bristol-Myers Squibb; Janssen; Merck; Pfizer; Sanofi-Aventis; Boehringer Ingelheim

Leadership positions in professional societiesAmerican College of Cardiology, Cardiosmart (Co-chair)

JoAnne M. Foody

Disclosures

Consultant / Advisory boardAegerion; Amarin; Bristol-Myers Squibb; Janssen; Merck; Pfizer; Sanofi-Aventis; Boehringer Ingelheim

Leadership positions in professional societiesAmerican College of Cardiology, Cardiosmart (Co-chair)

Never Too Late to Adopt Healthy Habits

Topics

Reviewing Author