Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Intervention in Children

Cardiovascular diseases, atherosclerosis and essential hypertension, are the major causes of morbidity and death in the United States today. Research over the past 20 years now clearly establishes that both diseases begin in childhood (1,2). Understanding the early natural history of coronary artery disease is tremendously important as it progresses to a clinical horizon later in life. It is equally important to begin considerations on intervention in early life to prevent adult coronary artery disease and hypertensive disease (3). Observations made in the Bogalusa Heart Study and other epidemiologic programs on children now provide a wealth of data on cardiovascular risk factor variables as they occur in various developmental periods of life — infancy, childhood, adolescence and young adulthood.