The prevalence of hypertension and obesity is increasing worldwide, despite widespread awareness, lifestyle interventions supporting weight loss, such as physical activity and reduction sedentary lifestyle. However, these strategies are insufficient to reduce the progression of this burden which is gradually gaining young people.
Arterial stiffness is no longer just the concern of the elderly
In middle-aged adults and the elderly, arterial stiffness is well established as a strong predictor of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. However, in children, adolescents and young adults, arterial stiffness remains understudied and therefore neglected as a marker and factor of cardiovascular disease and death in middle age. In pediatrics in particular, the clinical utility of arterial stiffness as a risk factor for early vascular and metabolic disease remains largely unknown.
The meta-analysis raises awareness of this factor, early on, by bringing together recent evidence from studies with adolescents and young adults on this new risk factor for hypertension, overweight/obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia and type 2 diabetes.
What are the risk factors in the youngest? One may wonder what are the risk factors for higher arterial stiffness in adolescents: maternal smoking, teenage smoking as well, high salt intake, genetics, obesity, physical inactivity are all of which may contribute to higher arterial stiffness in adolescence.
“It is therefore timely that clinicians, pediatricians, public health experts and policy makers quickly focus on ways to treat, reduce and reverse this factor, and as early as adolescence. Such interventions would reduce the incidence of hypertension and metabolic disorders later in life.”concludes the lead author, Dr. Andrew Agbaje, a physician and epidemiologist at the University of Finland.
