Does Lowering High Childhood Lipid Levels Prevent Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Adulthood?

High levels of non–HDL cholesterol are increasingly common in children and adolescents. However, the association of childhood dyslipidemia with adult adverse cardiovascular (CV) events is unclear, so the benefit of treating children with high non–HDL cholesterol levels also is unclear. For this reason, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force does not recommend for or against lipid screening in children and adolescents (NEJM JW Gen Med Aug 15 2023 and JAMA 2023; 330:253).

Investigators explored this issue by pooling data from 6 prospective cohort studies from the U.S. and Finland that followed ≈5000 children and adolescents (mean age, 11 years) into adulthood. Lipid levels were assessed at baseline (mean age, 11 years) and again in adulthood …