Related Experiment Videos
Usefulness of parental serum total cholesterol levels in identifying children with hypercholesterolemia
I Benuck1, S S Gidding, M Donovan
1Children's Memorial Hospital, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois.
Insights
Parental high cholesterol levels strongly predict high cholesterol in children. Screening parents for high cholesterol can effectively identify children needing intervention for elevated cholesterol, aiding early detection of hypercholesterolemia.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Cardiovascular Risk Factors
- Clinical Biochemistry
Background:
- Elevated cholesterol in children is a growing concern.
- Parental cholesterol levels are often unassessed.
- The National Cholesterol Education Program provides guidelines for acceptable cholesterol levels.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between parental and child cholesterol levels.
- To determine if parental cholesterol screening can identify children with high cholesterol.
- To assess the utility of parental hypercholesterolemia in identifying at-risk children.
Main Methods:
- Evaluated 160 families (320 parents, 263 children aged 3-10 years) for total cholesterol.
- Assessed other cardiovascular risk factors.
- Calculated odds ratios for children's high cholesterol based on parental cholesterol levels.
Main Results:
- Children with at least one parent exceeding 6.20 mmol/liter (240 mg/dl) cholesterol had a 13.6-fold increased odds of having cholesterol >= 5.17 mmol/liter (200 mg/dl).
- Screening children with at least one parent having cholesterol >= 5.17 mmol/liter (200 mg/dl) achieved 98% sensitivity for detecting children's high cholesterol.
- Nearly half of parents had not had their cholesterol measured prior to the study.
Conclusions:
- Parental total cholesterol is a valuable tool for identifying children with elevated cholesterol levels.
- Pediatricians can identify previously unrecognized parental hypercholesterolemia through child assessments.
- Targeted screening based on parental cholesterol can improve early detection of pediatric hypercholesterolemia.
Abstract:
It was hypothesized that healthy children with high cholesterol levels may have parents who exceed acceptable cholesterol levels established by the National Cholesterol Education Program. One hundred sixty families (320 parents, 263 children aged 3 to 10 years) were evaluated for total cholesterol and other risk factors. Before the study, almost half of the parents had not had serum total cholesterol measured. The odds ratio for a child having a total cholesterol greater than or equal to 5.17 mmol/liter (200 mg/dl) was 13.6:1 (confidence interval 5.7 to 32.5) for a child with at least 1 parent having cholesterol greater than or equal to 6.20 mmol/liter (240 mg/dl) versus a child whose parents had low total cholesterol. Testing only children who had at least 1 parent with a total cholesterol greater than or equal to 5.17 mmol/liter (200 mg/dl) had a sensitivity of 98% for detecting children's total cholesterol greater than or equal to 5.17 mmol/liter. It is concluded that parental total cholesterol is useful in identifying children with high total cholesterol levels. Pediatricians may identify a large number of parents with hypercholesterolemia not previously recognized.