Fat Children Held Likely to Have Heart Disease as Adults

A study of 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds found evidence that overweight, out-of-shape youngsters run a greater-than-average risk of developing heart disease as adults, researchers said Tuesday.

Analysis of pressure measurements from 216 inner-city children indicated that, even at a young age, “fitness and fatness have an impact on current and future cardiovascular health,” said Bernard Gutin of Columbia University Teachers College in New York.

After using treadmill tests to gauge the youngsters’ fitness, Gutin and his colleagues found that the least fit children tended to have the highest diastolic blood pressure. The diastolic number is the blood pressure when the heart is relaxed.

Also, the more overweight a boy or girl was, the higher the systolic, or contracting heart, blood pressure tended to be, the researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

Earlier studies have shown fitness and fatness to be linked to high blood pressure in adults and adolescents, but this was the first to show “an association with children as young as this,” Gutin said.

“Blood pressure is a major cardiovascular risk factor, which, in adults, is related inversely to aerobic fitness and directly to fatness,” the researchers said. They noted also that evidence is emerging that these relationships tend to continue through the years.