Addressing obesity among the nation's youths has become a top priority in the United States because cardiovascular disease risk factors can be found as early as adolescence and are thought to carry over into adulthood. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers examined the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors present in adolescents from the years 1999 to 2008.
In total, 3,383 adolescents ages 12 to 19 years who had completed an interview, physical exam, and fasting blood work were included in the analysis. They were classified into one of three categories according to body mass index: normal weight (66%), overweight (16%), or obese (18%). The adolescents were screened for known biological risk factors for cardiovascular disease: prehypertension or hypertension, abnormal lipid levels (further subdivided into two discrete risk factors, high low-density lipoprotein [LDL] cholesterol and low high-density lipoprotein [HDL] cholesterol), and prediabetes or diabetes.
Over the nine years of survey data, the prevalences of these risk factors were as follows: prehypertension or hypertension, 14%; borderline-high or high LDL cholesterol, 22%; low HDL cholesterol, 6%; and prediabetes or diabetes, 15%. There were no significant changes in the prevalences of prehypertension or hypertension or borderline-high or high LDL cholesterol from the 1999-2000 study period to the 2007-2008 study period; however, the prevalence of low HDL cholesterol decreased from 9% to 3% and the prevalence of prediabetes or diabetes increased from 9% to 23% in that time.
Among all adolescents, 43% showed evidence of one or more biological risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Breaking that down according to weight, 37% of normal-weight, 49% of overweight, and 61% of obese adolescents had one or more risk factors. Boys outpaced girls in terms of having one, two, and three or more risk factors. Adolescents in the highest age bracket (18 and 19 years) had a greater percentage of two or more risk factors than their youngest counterparts (12 and 13 years).
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