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Adopting healthy habits in youth yields better cholesterol levels in early adulthood
Magnussen CG. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2011;165:68-76.
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Adolescents who make unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as eating poorly, smoking or not exercising, were at elevated risk for high-risk cholesterol levels in adulthood, according to an online report.
Costan G. Magnussen, PhD, of the University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia, and University of Turku, Finland, and colleagues examined data on 539 participants enrolled in the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health Study. Study participants had their cholesterol and triglyceride levels measured in 1985, when they were aged 9, 12 or 15 years, and again at a follow-up between 2004 and 2006.
When looking only at high-density lipoprotein levels, the researchers said participants who did not modify any risky lifestyle factors between adolescence and adulthood had more than double the prevalence of low HDL levels than the study average (26.2% vs. 11.9%). Conversely, those who had improved at least two lifestyle factors had a prevalence of low HDL levels of less than one-quarter that of the study average.
Study participants who had low-risk profiles in youth but became high risk as adults also had greater increases in body fat, were less likely to improve their socioeconomic conditions and became less fit between measurements than those who remained low risk.
“Substantial proportions of individuals with high-risk blood lipid and lipoprotein levels at baseline no longer had high-risk levels at follow-up,” the researchers wrote, adding that this observation adds to a growing body of data that call into question routine lipid screening recommendations.
The researchers said those study participants who remained high risk gained more body fat and were more likely to begin or continue smoking during the follow-up period.
The researchers said their findings indicate that preventive programs aimed at those who do not have high-risk blood lipid and lipoprotein levels in youth are important to reducing the proportion of adults who are at an elevated risk for high-risk lipid levels.
Disclosure: The study researchers noted no relevant financial disclosures.
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