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Background and Objectives: Cardiovascular risk factors, such as obesity, blood pressure, and physical inactivity, have been identified as modifiable determinants of left ventricular (LV) diastolic function in adulthood. However, the links between childhood cardiovascular risk factor burden and adulthood LV diastolic function are unknown. To address this lack of knowledge, we aimed to identify childhood risk factors associated with LV diastolic function in the participants of the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study., Methods: Study participants ( N = 1871; 45.9% men; aged 34-49 years) were examined repeatedly between the years 1980 and 2011. We determined the cumulative risk exposure in childhood (age 6-18 years) as the area under the curve for systolic blood pressure, adiposity (defined by using skinfold and waist circumference measurements), physical activity, serum insulin, triglycerides, total cholesterol, and high- and low-density lipoprotein cholesterols. Adulthood LV diastolic function was defined by using E/é ratio., Results: Elevated systolic blood pressure and increased adiposity in childhood were associated with worse adulthood LV diastolic function, whereas higher physical activity level in childhood was associated with better adulthood LV diastolic function ( P < .001 for all). The associations of childhood adiposity and physical activity with adulthood LV diastolic function remained significant (both P < .05) but were diluted when the analyses were adjusted for adulthood systolic blood pressure, adiposity, and physical activity. The association between childhood systolic blood pressure and adult LV diastolic function was diluted to nonsignificant ( P = .56)., Conclusions: Adiposity status and the level of physical activity in childhood are independently associated with LV diastolic function in adulthood., Competing Interests: POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2021 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

Background: Elevated non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels are used to identify children at increased cardiovascular risk, but the use of non-HDL-C in childhood to predict atherosclerosis is unclear. We examined whether the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute classification of youth non-HDL-C status predicts high common carotid artery intima-media thickness in adulthood., Methods: We analyzed data from 4 prospective cohorts among 4582 children aged 3 to 19 years who were remeasured as adults (mean follow-up of 26 years). Non-HDL-C status in youth and adulthood was classified according to cut points of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III. High carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) in adulthood was defined as at or above the study visit-, age-, sex-, race-, and cohort-specific 90th percentile of intima-media thickness., Results: In a log-binomial regression analysis adjusted with age at baseline, sex, cohort, length of follow-up, baseline BMI, and systolic blood pressure, children with dyslipidemic non-HDL-C were at increased risk of high cIMT in adulthood (relative risk [RR], 1.29; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07-1.55). Compared with the persistent normal group, the persistent dyslipidemia group (RR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.37-2.37) and incident dyslipidemia (normal to dyslipidemia) groups (RR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.07-1.96) had increased risk of high cIMT in adulthood, but the risk was attenuated for the resolution (dyslipidemia to normal) group (RR, 1.17; 95% CI, 0.97-1.41)., Conclusions: Dyslipidemic non-HDL-C levels predict youth at risk for developing high cIMT in adulthood. Those who resolve their non-HDL-C dyslipidemia by adulthood have normalized risk of developing high cIMT in adulthood., Competing Interests: POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2020 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

Background and Objectives: Youth with high BMI who become nonobese adults have the same cardiovascular risk factor burden as those who were never obese. However, the early-life BMI trajectories for overweight or obese youth who avoid becoming obese adults have not been described. We aimed to determine and compare the young-childhood BMI trajectories of participants according to their BMI status in youth and adulthood., Methods: Bayesian hierarchical piecewise regression modeling was used to analyze the BMI trajectories of 2717 young adults who had up to 8 measures of BMI from childhood (ages 3-18 years) to adulthood (ages 34-49 years)., Results: Compared with those with persistently high BMI, those who resolved their high youth BMI by adulthood had lower average BMI at age 6 years and slower rates of BMI change from young childhood. In addition, their BMI levels started to plateau at 16 years old for females and 21 years old for males, whereas the BMI of those whose high BMI persisted did not stabilize until 25 years old for male subjects and 27 years for female subjects. Compared with those youth who were not overweight or obese and who remained nonobese in adulthood, those who developed obesity had a higher BMI rate of change from 6 years old, and their BMI continued to increase linearly until age 30 years., Conclusions: Efforts to alter BMI trajectories for adult obesity should ideally commence before age 6 years. The natural resolution of high BMI starts in adolescence for males and early adulthood for females, suggesting a critical window for secondary prevention., Competing Interests: POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2018 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

Background and Objectives: Socioeconomic disadvantage throughout the life course is associated with increased risk of cardiometabolic diseases, but traditional risk factors do not fully account for the social gradient. We investigated the interactions between low socioeconomic status (SES) and infection in childhood and adverse cardiometabolic parameters in adulthood., Methods: Participants from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study, a cohort well phenotyped for childhood and adulthood cardiometabolic risk factors and socioeconomic parameters, were linked to lifetime hospitalization data from birth onward available from the Finnish National Hospital Registry. In those with complete data, we investigated relationships between infection-related hospitalization in childhood, SES, and childhood and adult cardiometabolic parameters., Results: The study cohort consisted of 1015 participants (age range 3-18 years at baseline and 30-45 years at follow-up). In adults who were raised in below-median income families, childhood infection-related hospitalizations (at age 0-5 years) were significantly associated with higher adult BMI (β ± SE comparing those with 0 vs ≥1 hospitalizations 2.4 ± 0.8 kg/m(2), P = .008), waist circumference (7.4 ± 2.3 cm, P = .004), and reduced brachial flow-mediated dilatation (-2.7 ± 0.9%, P = .002). No equivalent associations were observed in participants from higher-SES families., Conclusions: Infection was associated with worse cardiovascular risk factor profiles only in those from lower-SES families. Childhood infection may contribute to social gradients observed in adult cardiometabolic disease risk factors. These findings suggest reducing childhood infections, especially in socioeconomic disadvantaged children, may reduce the cardiometabolic disease burden in adults., (Copyright © 2016 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

Background and Objectives: Identifying childhood determinants of adult cardiometabolic disease would facilitate early-life interventions. There are few longitudinal data on the contribution of childhood infections. Therefore, we investigated whether hospitalization with childhood infection is associated with adult anthropometric and metabolic outcomes in a large, well-phenotyped longitudinal cohort., Methods: A total of 1376 subjects from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study, aged 3 to 9 years at baseline (1980), who had lifetime data from birth onward on infection-related hospitalization (IRH) had repeated assessments through childhood and adolescence and at least once in adulthood (age 30-45 years in 2001-2011). Early childhood (<5 years), childhood/adolescence (5-18 years), adult (>18 years), and total lifetime IRHs were related to adiposity, BMI, and metabolic syndrome in adulthood. Analyses were adjusted for childhood and adulthood risk factors and potential confounders., Results: Early-childhood IRH correlated with adverse adult but not childhood metabolic variables: increased BMI (P = .02) and metabolic syndrome (risk ratio: 1.56; 95% confidence interval: 1.03-2.35; P = .03), adjusted for age, gender, birth weight, childhood BMI and other risk factors, and family income. The age at which differences in adult BMI became persistent was related to age of IRH in childhood. The greatest increase in adult BMI occurred in those with >1 childhood IRH., Conclusions: Childhood IRH was independently associated with adverse adult metabolic variables. This finding suggests that infections and/or their treatment in childhood may contribute to causal pathways leading to adult cardiometabolic diseases., (Copyright © 2015 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

Background and Objectives: Fasting insulin concentrations are increasingly being used as a surrogate for insulin resistance and risk for type 2 diabetes (T2DM), although associations with adult outcomes are unclear. Our objective was to determine whether fasting insulin concentrations in childhood associate with later T2DM., Methods: Fasting insulin values were available from 2478 participants in the longitudinal Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study at baseline age 3 to 18 years, along with data on adult T2DM (N = 84, mean age = 39.6 years)., Results: Among 3- to 6-year-olds, a 1-SD increase in fasting insulin was associated with a relative risk (RR) of 2.04 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.54-2.70) for later T2DM, which remained significant after we adjusted for BMI and parental history of T2DM. For those aged 9 to 18 years, a 1-SD increase in insulin was associated with an RR of 1.32 (95% CI, 1.06-1.65) for T2DM, but this became nonsignificant after we adjusted for BMI and parental history of T2DM. In the latter age group, a 1-SD increase in BMI was associated with an RR of 1.45 (95% CI, 1.21-1.73) for T2DM, with adjustment for insulin and parental history of T2DM not improving this association. BMI in younger children was not associated with later T2DM. In life course analyses, those with T2DM had higher fasting insulin levels in early childhood and later adulthood but not in peripubertal years., Conclusions: Elevated fasting insulin concentrations in early childhood, but not adolescence, are independently associated with an elevated risk of T2DM in adulthood., (Copyright © 2015 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

Objective: The ability of childhood elevated blood pressure (BP) to predict high pulse wave velocity (PWV), a surrogate marker for cardiovascular disease, in adulthood has not been reported. We studied whether elevated pediatric BP could predict high PWV in adulthood and if there is a difference in the predictive ability between the standard BP definition endorsed by the National High Blood Pressure Education Program and the recently proposed 2 simplified definitions., Methods: The sample comprised 1241 subjects from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study followed-up 27 years since baseline (1980, aged 6-15 years). Arterial PWV was measured in 2007 by whole-body impedance cardiography., Results: The relative risk for high PWV was 1.5 using the simple 1 (age-specific) definition, 1.6 using the simple 2 (age- and gender-specific) definition, and 1.7 using the complex (age-, gender-, and height-specific) definition (95% confidence interval: 1.1-2.0, P = .007; 1.2-2.2, P = .001; and 1.2-2.2, P = .001, respectively). Predictions of high PWV were equivalent for the simple 1 or simple 2 versus complex definition (P = .25 and P = .68 for area under the curve comparisons, P = .13 and P = .35 for net reclassification indexes, respectively)., Conclusions: Our results support the previous finding that elevated BP tracks from childhood to adulthood and accelerates the atherosclerotic process. The simplified BP tables could be used to identify pediatric patients at increased risk of high arterial stiffness in adulthood and hence to improve the primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases.