80% of young adults already have heart risk factors: Study finds
New AHA-published study links early CKM syndrome staging to measurable artery damage
Nearly 80% of young adults in a new study, averaging just 23 years old, already met criteria for a condition linking heart, kidney and metabolic disease, according to research published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Population Health and Outcomes.
Those who had higher levels of disease staging were found to have thickened arterial walls, which is an indicator of heart damage that usually occurs in individuals many years older than them.
This paper looked at the cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome or CKM syndrome, a disease staging classification that was brought forward by the American Heart Association in 2023 in order to classify the interactions between excess body weight, metabolic problems, and kidney functions that lead to heart diseases.
Almost all studies involving CKM syndrome have been done among adults, and there has not been any evidence of whether this classification holds true for adolescents.
The study involved 1,283 young adults, having an average age of 22.9 years, in the study called Future of Families-Cardiovascular Health Among Young Adults. Participants of the study were a group that was first recruited at birth during the time period of 1998 to 2000, with deliberate oversampling of those from poor families and African-Americans/Hispanics.
During the years 2021 to 2023, physical examinations, blood analysis, and ultrasonography of carotid arteries to measure their thickness, which is a known early predictor of damage to arteries, occurred.
Just 20.7% of participants qualified as Stage 0, meaning no CKM risk factors at all. Another 40.2% fell into Stage 1, marked by excess body fat, while 36.2% reached Stage 2 with added metabolic issues like high blood pressure or abnormal cholesterol.
A smaller group, 2.8%, had already reached Stage 3, showing early detectable signs of cardiovascular or kidney disease at an average age of 23.
Overall heart health scores, measured using the AHA's Life's Essential 8 tool, declined steadily with each advancing stage, dropping roughly 13 to 14 points between Stage 0 and Stages 2 or 3.
Those in Stage 3 had an average carotid wall thickness of 0.100 millimetres more than those in Stage 0. According to the lead researcher of this study, Vivek Krishnan, who is a medical student in his third year from Boston University’s Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, the results of the study show “substantial burden of risk factors” among people.
According to the corresponding author of this study, Donald Lloyd-Jones, a cardiologist from Boston University, although most heart attacks occur in their 40s through 60s, most of the time the process leading to these diseases starts accelerating in the 20s.
Diet and physical activity scores fell below 50 out of 100 at every CKM stage studied, even among participants with no other risk factors, suggesting room for improvement regardless of current health status.
Because participants were measured only once, researchers caution the study can't predict individual future risk, and the cohort's intentional focus on disadvantaged backgrounds means findings may not generalise to all young adults.
