Abstract
Chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the main health concerns in the 21st century, with CVD as the number one cause of mortality worldwide. Although CVD hard endpoints such as stroke or heart attack do not usually occur in children, evidence shows that the manifestation of CVD risk factors begins in childhood, preceding clinical complications of CVD in adulthood. Dietary intake is a modifiable risk factor that has been shown to make a substantial contribution to the risk of CVD in adulthood. However, less is known about the association between dietary intake and markers of cardiovascular health in children. This review summarises the current evidence on the relationship between dietary intake and markers of cardiovascular health including traditional CVD risk factors, physical fitness, and indices of arterial stiffness and wave reflection in children. Original research published in English, between January 2008 and December 2018 fulfilling the objective of this review were screened and included. Findings show that adaptation of a healthy lifestyle early in life can be beneficial for reducing the risk of CVD later in life. Furthermore, keeping arterial stiffness low from a young age could be a potential CVD prevention strategy. However, limited studies are available on diet-arterial stiffness relationship in children, and future research is required to better understand this association to aid the development and implementation of evidence-based strategies for preventing CVD-related complications later in life.
Highlights
Healthy nutrition is one of the major parameters associated with children’s growth and cognitive development [1]
Limited studies are available on diet-arterial stiffness relationship in children, and future research is required to better understand this association to aid the development and implementation of evidence-based strategies for preventing cardiovascular diseases (CVD)-related complications later in life
All original research articles published in English, between January 2008 and December 2018 with their main objective to study the association between dietary habits and markers of cardiovascular health in children and adolescents were screened
Summary
Healthy nutrition is one of the major parameters associated with children’s growth and cognitive development [1]. On the one hand poor or unhealthy nutrition can negatively affect children’s health, growth and cognitive performance. On the other hand over nutrition in children can increase the incidence of various complications such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) risk factors and resulting in poor quality of life from a young age [2]. Traditional CVD risk factors such as obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver have increased in children over the past few decades [3,4]. Increasing evidence, for more novel risk factors such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP), and homocysteine has shown the underlying origins of CVD development in childhood, which persist, and progress into adulthood [5]. There has been a growing interest in investigating markers of cardiovascular health and their determinants at early stages of life
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