Adolescents with elevated blood pressure, obesity, or smoking habits face higher risks of cardiovascular events in adulthood, according to a recent study. 

The cohort study of 11,550 participants from the U.S., Australia, and Finland examined adolescent predictors of adult cardiovascular events. The study evaluated whether nonlaboratory risk factors, including body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, and smoking, could predict cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes as effectively as models incorporating lipid levels, such as total cholesterol and triglycerides.

Published in Pediatrics, results demonstrated that nonlaboratory risk factors alone provided similar predictive accuracy for adult cardiovascular events as models that included lipid data. Among participants (55.1% female, mean age 50 years), 513 (4.4%) experienced fatal or nonfatal CVD events after age 25. Key adolescent predictors included elevated blood pressure (hazard ratio [HR], 1.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03–1.52), overweight (HR, 1.76; 95% CI, 1.42–2.18), obesity (HR, 2.19; 95% CI, 1.62–2.98), smoking (HR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.37–1.95), and high total cholesterol (HR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.39–2.31).

Researchers found no significant improvement in predictive accuracy with the addition of lipid measurements to nonlaboratory factors; both models achieved similar C-statistics (0.75; standard deviation, 0.07; P = .82). These findings suggest that in settings where laboratory testing is less accessible, nonlaboratory-based risk assessments using BMI, blood pressure, and smoking status can effectively identify adolescents at risk for future CVD.

The findings indicate the importance of primordial prevention strategies targeting modifiable CVD risk factors beginning in childhood, as well as the potential for simplified screening approaches for CVD risk assessment in adolescents.

Full disclosures can be found in the published study.