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A Mother-Child Dyadic Approach to Evaluating Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease in Young Children: A Feasibility
Insights
This study shows that noninvasive methods can assess cardiovascular risk in young children and their mothers. Maternal systolic blood pressure correlated with child BMI and arterial stiffness, highlighting early risk transmission.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Pediatrics
- Public Health
Background:
- Cardiovascular (CV) risk factors are often transmitted from mothers to children.
- Traditional CV risk assessment methods are inadequate for detecting subclinical CV risk in young children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the feasibility of recruiting mother-child dyads for CV risk assessment.
- To measure arterial stiffness, blood pressure (BP) patterns, and other CV health metrics in mothers and children aged 1-5 years.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the noninvasive Mobil-O-Graph device for arterial stiffness and BP measurements.
- Collected data on cholesterol, glucose, BMI, and lifestyle factors (smoking, diet, physical activity).
- Employed descriptive statistics for feasibility and Pearson correlations for mother-child associations.
Main Results:
- Successfully recruited 35 mother-child dyads with 89% recruitment and 80% retention rates.
- Maternal systolic BP positively correlated with child BMI z-scores (r=0.42) and mother-child augmentation pressure (r=0.51).
- Identified that 23% of mothers did not exhibit normal nocturnal blood pressure dipping.
Conclusions:
- A mother-child approach using noninvasive methods is feasible for assessing CV risk.
- Findings support early identification and intervention for cardiovascular risk in young children and their mothers.
Background:
Cardiovascular (CV) risk factors can be transmitted from mothers to their children. However, it is challenging to measure and identify subclinical CV risk in young children using traditional CV risk methods and metrics.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of recruiting mother-child dyads and measuring arterial stiffness (pulse wave velocity, augmentation index/pressure), blood pressure (BP), BP circadian pattern, specifically nocturnal BP dipping, and CV health metrics in mothers and in children aged 1 to 5 years.
Methods:
All BP and arterial stiffness measures were obtained using the noninvasive automated oscillometric Mobil-O-Graph device. Also measured were blood cholesterol level; glucose level; body mass index (BMI); and smoking, diet, and physical activity history. Descriptive statistics were used for assessing recruitment feasibility and Pearson correlations for mother-child associations.
Results:
Thirty-five mother-child dyads completed the protocol. Recruitment reach was 89% and retention rate was 80%. Mothers were 34.3 ± 5.4 years old with a mean systolic BP (SBP) of 114.6 ± 9.5 mm Hg and BMI of 26.0 ± 6.5. Children were 3 ± 1.4 years old with a mean SBP of 103.3 ± 9.4 mm Hg and BMI z -scores of -0.3 ± 1.5. Arterial stiffness parameters were within normal ranges for mothers and children. Twenty-three percent of mothers did not exhibit nocturnal dipping (<10% decrease between day and nighttime SBP). Maternal SBP was positively correlated with child BMI z -scores ( r = 0.42, P = .022) as well as mother-child augmentation pressure ( r = 0.51, P = .010).
Conclusions:
Our findings support using a mother-child approach and novel noninvasive approaches to assess and target CV risk in mothers and their young children.
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