Kids' MD visit good chance to check parents' heart

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A child's checkup can be a golden opportunity to spot parents who are at risk of heart disease, a new study shows.

While children routinely visit the doctor at least once a year, their parents often don't get such frequent checkups, Dr. Evelyn Cohen Reis of the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh noted in an interview with Reuters Health.

This means these young and middle-aged adults may have unrecognized risk factors that, if diagnosed and treated, could prevent them from developing heart disease down the road. "There is a great opportunity for prevention, but to prevent we need to detect early," she added.

A typical checkup involves measuring a child's height and weight and taking the child's blood pressure. The American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics also recommend checking cholesterol levels in kids with risk factors such as obesity.

To better understand the relationship between children's and parents' risk, Reis and her team conducted a more thorough evaluation in 94 families including 141 children and 108 parents. Study participants' blood fats and blood sugar were tested after fasting, and they were evaluated for other heart disease risk factors such as weight circumference and levels of HDL or "good" cholesterol.

If a child had high blood pressure, they found, his or her parents were 15 times more likely to have hypertension. Parents of obese kids were six times more likely to be obese themselves. And parents of children with high levels of triglycerides in their blood were six times more likely to have elevated triglyceride levels as well.

The findings make it clear that doctors -- and parents -- should begin to see health as a family matter, Reis said. Parents ought to "think about not just what this mean does for my child, but what does this mean for my health, what does this mean for my family's health," she explained. This is especially important, she added, given that it's much easier to adopt lifestyle habits like exercise and a healthier diet as a family.

While its long been obvious to pediatricians that parents of obese kids are more likely to be obese themselves, they have felt that it is "not their place" to address a parent's health issues while caring for the child, Reis noted. But based on her findings, she added, pediatricians who identify cardiovascular disease risk factors in their patients should recommend that their parents consult a doctor for heart disease risk factor assessment.

The findings also mean that doctors caring for adults should ask about the health of their patient's children, Reis said.

She and her colleagues conclude: "Universal CVD risk-factor screening of children would provide ample opportunity for intervention in children and their young and middle-aged parents, with potential for great individual and public health benefit."

SOURCE: Pediatrics, December 2006.