Lipid screening in children and adolescents

Despite enormous advances in research supporting lipid screening among adults, there are critical research gaps in our understanding of the potential benefit and harm of routine screening of young children and adults. Although clear clinical opportunities exist to test and treat individual children from high risk backgrounds, building the case for systematically screening all children as part of a comprehensive cardiovascular disease prevention program requires more convincing evidence that this type of screening will yield true net positive clinical and public health outcomes. This should not prevent the pediatric community from aggressive promotion of healthy lifestyles, both in the office and through effective public policy.