Household cardiovascular screening of high-risk families: a school-based study.
BACKGROUND
A parental history of cardiovascular disease has a strong relationship with risk factor clusters in the offspring. This study was performed to identify major cardiovascular risk factors in middle school-aged children and their parents in both high and low-risk families.


METHODS
A school-based, cross-sectional study.


METHODS
The middle schools of the 6th district of Tehran were divided randomly into two groups. A total of 169 high-risk children with their families were recruited from the first group and 105 low-risk children with their families were recruited from the second group of schools. Anthropometric and metabolic measurements were performed.


RESULTS
The means of the waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio were significantly higher in high-risk fathers. The means of total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol were significantly higher in both parents and children of the high-risk group. The means of the fasting plasma glucose were significantly higher in fathers and offspring of high-risk families. More fathers in high-risk families were smokers. The prevalence of increased total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and hyperglycemia (> or = 100 mg/dl) were higher in high-risk parents and children. The prevalence of increased body mass index (> or = 25 kg/m for parents and 85th percentile for children) was higher in fathers and children of high-risk families.


CONCLUSIONS
Cardiovascular risk factors are more prevalent and clustered in high-risk families. The screening of high-risk families is essential to prevent the progression of atherosclerosis from childhood and reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in adulthood.
Pourebrahim
Rasoul
R
Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Fakhrzadeh
Hossein
H
Bandarian
Fatemeh
F
Tabatabaie
Ozra
O
Noori
Masoomeh
M
Djalilpour
Forouzan
F
Zahedi
Farzaneh
F
Rahimi
Iman
I
Heshmat
Ramin
R
Djavadi
Ebrahim
E
Ghotbi
Sara
S
Larijani
Bagher
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D049628:Body Size; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004041:Dietary Fats; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008055:Lipids / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009679:Nuclear Family; D012307:Risk Factors
D004041:Dietary Fats; D008055:Lipids