1. Parental cardiovascular health predicts time to onset of cardiovascular disease in offspring
- Author
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Suzanne G. Leveille, Mulubrhan F. Mogos, Philimon Gona, Mariann R. Piano, Laura L. Hayman, James M. Muchira, and Eileen M. Stuart-Shor
- Subjects
Male ,Parents ,Epidemiology ,Offspring ,Health Status ,Cardiovascular health ,Disease ,030204 cardiovascular system & hematology ,Cardiovascular System ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Framingham Heart Study ,Risk Factors ,Cox proportional hazards regression ,Humans ,Medicine ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Child ,Time to onset ,business.industry ,Hazard ratio ,United States ,Confidence interval ,Cardiovascular Diseases ,Heart Disease Risk Factors ,Female ,Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine ,business ,Demography - Abstract
Background Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors are transmitted from parents to children. We prospectively examined the association between parental cardiovascular health (CVH) and time to onset of CVD in the offspring. Methods and results The study consisted of a total of 5967 offspring–mother–father trios derived from the Framingham Heart Study. Cardiovascular health score was defined using the seven American Heart Association’s CVH metrics attained at ideal levels: poor (0–2), intermediate (3–4), and ideal CVH (5–7). Multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression models, Kaplan–Meier plots, and Irwin’s restricted mean were used to examine the association and sex-specific differences between parental CVH and offspring’s CVD-free survival. In a total of 71 974 person-years of follow-up among the offspring, 718 incident CVD events occurred. The overall CVD incidence rate was 10 per 1000 person-years [95% confidence interval (CI) 9.3–10.7]. Offspring of mothers with ideal CVH lived 9 more years free of CVD than offspring of mothers with poor CVH (P Conclusions We found that offspring of parents with ideal CVH had a greater CVD-free survival. Maternal CVH was a more robust predictor of offspring’s CVD-free survival than paternal CVH, underscoring the need for clinical and policy interventions that involve mothers to break the intergenerational cycle of CVD-related morbidity and mortality.
- Published
- 2020