Ideal Cardiovascular Health in Young Adult Populations From the United States, Finland, and Australia and Its Association With cIMT: The International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort Consortium

Abstract

BackgroundGoals for cardiovascular (CV) disease prevention were set by the American Heart Association in 2010 for the concept of CV health. Ideal CV health is defined by 7 CV health metrics: blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, body mass index, and physical activity on recommended levels; nonsmoking; and a healthy diet. We studied the prevalence of ideal CV health and its associations with ultrasonographically measured carotid intima‐media thickness (cIMT) cross‐sectionally in 5 international populations.Methods and ResultsPrevalence of ideal CV health was assessed among 5785 young adults (age, 36.6±3.2 years) comprising 335 participants from the Minneapolis Childhood Cohort Studies (Minnesota), 723 from the Princeton Follow‐up Study, 981 from the Bogalusa Heart Study (BHS), 1898 from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (YFS), and 1848 from the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health Study (CDAH). Only 1% of the participants had all 7 ideal CV health metrics. The number of ideal CV health metrics associated inversely with cIMT in the 4 cohorts in which cIMT was available: for each additional ideal CV health metric, cIMT was 12.7 μm thinner in Minnesota (P=0.0002), 9.1 μm thinner in BHS (P=0.05), 10.4 μm thinner in YFS (P<0.0001), and 3.4 μm thinner in CDAH (P=0.03).ConclusionsThe number of ideal CV health metrics was inversely associated with cIMT in the cohorts in which cIMT was available, indicating that ideal CV health metrics are associated with vascular health at the population level. Ideal CV health was rare in this large international sample of young adults, emphasizing the need for effective strategies for health promotion.

Ideal Cardiovascular Health and Adiposity: Implications in Youth

“…Previous studies have found the prevalence of ICH to be low or absent in adolescent,22, 38, 39 young adult,40 and adult populations 41. Our findings are consistent with existing literature, and extend these concerning results to a younger population (mean age: 12.8 years; SD 2.7).…”

“…Furthermore, only 1 participant met the ideal criteria for the healthy diet score. Previous studies have attempted to address this issue by dichotomizing the number of ICH metrics (≤3 or ≥4 ICH metrics),39 creating summary scores for total number of ICH metrics present (maximum of 7),22, 40 or generating a composite score (0, 1, or 2 assigned for poor, intermediate, and ideal cardiovascular health, respectively, for each of the 7 factors) 15. Alternatively, it may be beneficial to consider a continuous ICH metric that captures the dynamic physiological state of cardiovascular health 24, 44, 45…”

“…Given that pediatric cohort studies report an absence of ICH in children4, 22 and secular trends show increases in severe obesity prevalence,14 the clinical utility of the ICH metric could be improved with a greater focus on adiposity status. Furthermore, it is unclear whether categorizing biologically continuous risk factors for ICH estimation is the ideal approach 23, 24.…”

Cumulative Effect of Psychosocial Factors in Youth on Ideal Cardiovascular Health in Adulthood

“…This concept is defined by the presence of 7 ideal health factors that describe whether a person has ideal cardiovascular health and indicate where improvement is needed to attain better health. 1 Substantial evidence demonstrates that the ideal cardiovascular health index is associated with better vascular health 2 and with reductions in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. 3,4 Childhood and youth are important stages of life because cardiovascular diseases are rooted in early life 5,6 and social January 20, 2015…”

Cardiovascular Health Behaviors and Risk Factors Among Argentine and American University Students

“…Additionally, the prevalence of the ideal cardiovascular (CV) health metric has been studied in populations around the globe, however it has been mostly focused on country groups that are primarily of caucasian ethnicities, such as Finland, Australia, and the United States. [19] We chose to examine a primarily caucasian population group against a primarily hispanic population group to assess whether there are differences in CV behaviors and risk factors between the two countries and whether the associated trends between behaviors and risk factors is a universal trend or not.…”