Parental influences on cardiovascular risk factors in Swedish children aged 5-14 years
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Published on: July 29, 2020
Amal R Khanolkar1, Liisa Byberg, Ilona Koupil
1Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. amal.khanolkar@ki.se
Insights
Parental lifestyle significantly impacts children's cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, independent of socioeconomic position. Unhealthy parental habits like smoking and low physical activity increase children's risk, suggesting targeted family interventions.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Cardiology
- Public Health
Background:
- Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have origins in childhood.
- Understanding early life CVD risk factors is crucial for prevention.
- Parental socioeconomic position (SEP) and lifestyle may influence children's CVD risk.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between parental SEP, lifestyle, and children's CVD risk factors.
- To examine how CVD risk factors correlate within families.
- To identify modifiable factors for childhood CVD prevention.
Main Methods:
- Studied 602 families (2141 individuals) including children aged 5-14 and their parents.
- Collected data on parental SEP and lifestyle (smoking, physical activity, alcohol).
- Analyzed associations with CVD risk factors (cholesterol, BMI, blood pressure, etc.) using regression, adjusting for confounders and family clustering.
Main Results:
- Parental lifestyle, not SEP, showed significant associations with children's CVD risk factors.
- Children of smoking fathers had higher BMI and leptin.
- Children of mothers with vigorous physical activity had lower BMI, cholesterol, and reduced odds of overweight/obesity.
Conclusions:
- Parental lifestyle behaviors (smoking, low PA) are linked to increased CVD risk factors in children.
- Strong within-family correlations in CVD risk factors suggest a potential genetic influence.
- Public health strategies should target families with unhealthy lifestyles for CVD prevention.
Background:
Precursors of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) originate in childhood. We investigated relationships of children's CVD risk factors with parent's socio-economic position (SEP) and lifestyle and how CVD risk factors correlate within families.
Methods:
We studied 602 families with 2141 individuals comprising two full sibs; aged 5-14 years, and their biological parents (Uppsala Family Study). Parental SEP (occupational class and education) and lifestyle habits [smoking, physical activity (PA), alcohol consumption] were taken from questionnaires. Associations with cholesterol, ApoB/ApoA1, leptin, adiponectin, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI) and overweight/obesity (OW/OB) were analysed by linear/logistic regression. Results were adjusted for child's age, gender, pubertal stage and family clustering.
Results:
We observed no consistent associations between parental SEP and children's CVD risk factors. Parental lifestyle had stronger effects, independent of parental SEP. Children of smoking fathers had higher BMI (4%, 95% CI 1-7%) and leptin levels (27%, 95% CI 1.00-61.60%). Children of mothers reporting vigorous PA had lower BMI, cholesterol and decreased odds for OW/OB with a possible dose effect. Compared with mothers reporting no vigorous activity, mothers with ≤75 min and 76-150 min/week of vigorous activity had 43% (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.22-0.89) and 72% (OR 0.28, 95% CI 0.14-0.60) lower risk of having an OW/OB child, respectively, after adjustment for confounders. Independent, consistently stronger and significant associations were found between all studied parents' and children's CVD risk factors.
Conclusion:
Parental behaviours: smoking, alcohol consumption, low PA are associated with higher levels of CVD risk factors (BMI, OW/OB, cholesterol) in children. Strong correlations in CVD risk factors within families not related to parental SEP/lifestyle suggest a role of genetics in influencing children's CVD risk factors. Public health policies should target families with unhealthy lifestyles.
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