title: The Unchartered Frontier: Preventive Cardiology Between the Ages of 15 and 35 Years.
abstract: It is well established that atherosclerosis, the pathological basis of cardiovascular disease (CVD), begins in childhood and progresses steadily between the ages of 15 to 35 years. These adolescent and young adult years are also marked by significant physiological, psychological, and sociodemographic changes that impact both CVD risk factor development and CVD prevention and treatment strategies. In this review, we highlight the importance of theprimordialprevention of CVD risk factors before they ever occur and theprimaryprevention of CVD by treating CVD risk factors in this age group. Although the long time to first CVD event for most young people precludes the availability of clinical trials with hard end-points, findings from epidemiology, health psychology, health services research, and clinical trials with surrogate endpoints are discussed to inform an evidence-based approach to CVD prevention in adolescents and young adults.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital, and Division of General Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Holly
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gooding
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, H4/512 CSC, MC 3248, 600 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53792, USA.
authors.forename: Heather M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Johnson
keywords: Adolescents; Primary prevention; Primordial prevention; Risk factors; Young adults