[Experience in primary prevention of cardiovascular risk factors in children]

Pathologic studies have shown that atherosclerosis may already be present in childhood as reversible fatty streaks in the aortic intima. These findings are directly related to total serum cholesterol and inversely related to serum HDL cholesterol. This study was aimed at screening children and young adolescents of Novara for cardiovascular risk factors and achieving a specific health educational program. We screened a sample of 2560 children and young adolescents aged 10 to 16 years (mean 12) for known family history of cardiovascular diseases and hyperlipidemia, blood pressure values, serum cholesterol fractions and triglycerides. Of the 2560 children, 786 were considered at risk according to pre-defined cutoff points for systolic BP (> 120 mmHg) 10.6%, diastolic BP (> 80 mmHg) 3.4%, total serum cholesterol (= > 160 mg/dl) 18.7%, serum HDL cholesterol (< 40 mg/dl) 49.5%, total serum cholesterol/HDL ratio (> 4) 28.0%, and triglycerides (> 150 mg/dl) 3.7%. Parents were invited to change family lifestyle according to a specific health educational program, which included advice about diet and physical activity. All children at risk were re-examined 1 year later. Mean values of total serum cholesterol (129 +/- 26 vs 143 +/- 30, p < 0.001), triglycerides (86 +/- 28 vs 91 +/- 32, p < 0.01) and total serum cholesterol/HDL ratio (3.7 vs 3.8, p NS) were found to be lower than at index evaluation. The distribution of total cholesterol curve shifted to the left, and the high risk cases (total serum cholesterol > 200 mg/dl) lowered from 56 to 24 at the follow-up evaluation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)