A Tasmanian professor is involved in a long-term global study of 40,000 people, to determine risk factors for heart disease and diabetes that can be identified in childhood.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
There might be a bigger impact in childhood than later in life.
- Dr Costan Magnussen.
Dr Costan Magnussen, a fellow at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research in Hobart, shared the findings of his research at the Royal Society of Tasmania's March lecture at Queen Victoria Museum, Inveresk.
Along with five institutes in the United States and one in Finland, Dr Magnussen and the Menzies Institute are part of the International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort Consortium, known as i3C.
The i3C's studies have looked at children as young as three, beginning as far back as 1970, and documented their health throughout their lives.
They particularly looked at the key risk factors of heart disease: elevated blood pressure, elevated lipids, increased fatness, active and passive smoking, physical activity and fitness, diet, glucose homeostasis, genetics and family history, and psychosocial factors.
The i3C's key finding is that risk factors for heart disease and diabetes in adults are also risk factors as far back as childhood.
"In some cases, those risk factors in childhood are more strongly associated with cardiovascular disease than contemporary measures in adulthood," Dr Magnussen said.
"There might be a bigger impact in childhood than later in life. We don't know that, but we are seeing on a reasonably regular basis with some of these risk factors that the effects are stronger for the childhood risk factor than the adult one."
Among the 40,000 studied participants, some were able to proactively change their obesity status from childhood to adulthood through lifestyle behaviours.
While doing so "is quite difficult," he said, there were clear rewards for participants in those cases.
"You're much less likely to develop cardiovascular disease and diabetes," he said.
"It's a huge reduction by amending that status if you stay persistent."
Tasmania is "leading the nation" in almost every risk factor for cardiovascular disease, Dr Magnussen also said.
"It's a costly issue, and not only in terms of monetary value," he said.
RELATED: