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Healthy lifestyle in young adulthood leads to low CVD risk profile later in life
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American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2010
CHICAGO — Maintaining a healthy lifestyle from young adulthood to middle age appears to play a significant role in achieving a low CVD risk profile in middle age, according to new research.
Researchers analyzed long-term follow-up of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study to examine the effects of a healthy lifestyle started early in life. The multicenter, longitudinal study included 2,498 black and white participants who were aged 18 to 30 years at baseline in 1985. The researchers assessed five healthy lifestyle factors at baseline, year 7 and year 20:
- Average BMI <25.
- Alcohol intake less than 15 g per day for women or less than 30 g per day for men.
- High consumption of potassium, calcium and fiber, and lower consumption of saturated fat.
- Average physical activity score greater than the 60th percentile of the race- and sex-specific distribution.
- Never smoking cigarettes.
After 20 years, more than 60% of people with all five healthy lifestyle factors from young adulthood to middle age had a low CVD risk profile as compared with less than 6% of people with none of the healthy lifestyle factors. The proportion of people with a low-risk CVD profile increases as the number of healthy lifestyle factors increases, the researchers concluded.
“To maximize the benefit of low CVD risk profile in middle age and older adults, more emphasis should be devoted to encourage a healthy lifestyle starting from young adulthood,” the researchers wrote in the study.
For more information:
- Liu K. Abstract 12250. Presented at: American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2010; Nov. 13-17; Chicago.
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