Do Childhood Cardiovascular Risk Factors Predict Adult Adverse CV Events?

Associations exist between childhood cardiovascular (CV) risk factors (e.g., smoking, high body-mass index, high systolic blood pressure, lipid imbalance) and subsequent adult subclinical cardiovascular disease (e.g., hypertension). But do these associations persist into adulthood for clinical outcomes, such as myocardial infarction or early death? To examine this question, investigators analyzed data from the International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort Consortium, which has collected longitudinal CV risk factor and health outcomes data since the 1970s.

The study included nearly 40,000 children for whom adult follow-up data were available. On average, participants were 12 years old at their childhood visits. During follow-up, 0.8% of parti…