Contact: Craig Dunhoff, Lisa Rossi
412-624-2607
Date of presentation: March 18, 1999

VANCOUVER, CANADA -- Biological and psychosocial risk factors for cardiovascular disease begin to accumulate in children as young as 8 years old, according to a paper presented today by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers Kristen Salomon, Ph.D., senior research principal and Karen Matthews, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, epidemiology and psychology, both at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

According to the Pitt researchers, biological risk factors such as high resting blood pressure, high insulin levels in the blood and low levels of HDL (good) cholesterol, along with factors such as hostility and cardiovascular responses during stress can cluster in a child, increasing the likelihood that the child will develop cardiovascular disease.

"Our results show that kids show the burden of multiple risk factors," commented Dr. Salomon. "And this burden begins to show as early as the first decade of life."

Dr. Salomon presented the findings today at the American Psychosomatic Society Annual Meeting in Vancouver.

The Pitt researchers studied 123 children aged 8-10 years and 78 adolescents aged 15-17 years. The children completed a standard laboratory stress protocol, and the researchers examined the age, sex and race specific distributions of resting systolic blood pressure, insulin and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and identified individuals in the high-risk quartiles of these distributions. Analysis of the data determined that those children in the high-risk groups for blood pressure, insulin and HDL levels were also likely to fall into the high-risk groups for stress responses and hostility.

"Knowing that risk factors accumulate in childhood, we should work to promote healthy lifestyles early in life. An unhealthy lifestyle contributes to the presence of risk factors. Rather than wait until an adult develops cardiovascular disease to intervene, children should be taught the importance of a healthy diet, exercise, not smoking, anger management and stress coping strategies as an overall lifestyle to avoid the development of cardiovascular disease. An unhealthy lifestyle is difficult to change, particularly if learned at a young age," said Dr. Salomon.

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