The new study pinpoints the age at which cardiovascular health trajectories begin to decline, revealing a crucial window for targeted interventions to improve cardiovascular health into adolescence and adulthood.

The American Heart Association has recently introduced Life’s Essential Eight guidelines, which assess cardiovascular health based on four behavioural (diet, smoking, physical activity, sleep duration) and four health factors (BMI, blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol levels).

The research team studied data from over 1,500 children from the Project Viva pre-birth cohort in eastern Massachusetts. The authors found that cardiovascular health scores start to decline around age 10 across all demographic groups, and this is driven by health behaviours rather than health factors.

This decline might reflect social and developmental changes that typically occur around this age - for instance changes to school schedules that could interfere with meeting guidelines for healthy sleep duration and diet - that may affect health behaviours.

The research team suggest that improving these health behaviours, particularly between mid-childhood and early adolescence, could help optimise cardiovascular health.

You can read the full study here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/12/241218131311.htm