Trajectory of Cardiovascular Health Across Childhood and Adolescence

Importance The American Heart Association put forth the Life’s Essential 8 construct to assess cardiovascular health (CVH) based on 8 behavioral and health factors. Few studies have characterized the natural history of CVH in early life or identified its sociodemographic determinants. Objective To characterize CVH trajectories across childhood and adolescence and identify associations with sociodemographic variables. Design, Setting, and Participants This study used data from the Project Viva prebirth cohort, an ongoing prospective prebirth cohort study conducted in a large multispecialty group practice in eastern Massachusetts among women who were pregnant and enrolled from April 1999 to November 2002. Participant inclusion required 3 or more CVH metrics in early childhood (median [range] age, 3.2 [2.8-6.2] years) or 4 metrics or more in midchildhood (median [range] age, 7.7 [6.6-10.9] years), early adolescence (median [range] age, 13.0 [11.9-16.6] years), or late adolescence (median [range] age, 17.5 [15.4-20.1] years). Of 2218 live births in the original cohort, 1523 were included in the present analysis. Data were analyzed from June to December 2023. Exposures Child sex, race, and ethnicity; maternal education; and household income. Main Outcomes and Measures CVH score (0-100 points) from early childhood to late adolescence, calculated as the unweighted average of all available CVH metrics at each life stage. Results Among 1523 children, 782 (51.4%) were male; 53 (3.5%) were non-Hispanic Asian, 231 (15.2%) were non-Hispanic Black, 988 (65.0%) were non-Hispanic White, and 175 (11.5%) were non-Hispanic other. The mean (SD) CVH score was 82.6 (8.6) in early childhood, 84.1 (8.3) in midchildhood, 82.0 (9.8) in early adolescence, and 73.8 (11.5) in late adolescence. The estimated mean (SD) age of inflection when CVH score declined was 10.1 (0.7) years for male children and 10.0 (0.6) years for female children; the decline in CVH was associated with health behaviors rather than health factors. Male children (vs female children) had faster CVH score gain before the inflection (β, 0.79 points/year; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.91) and faster CVH score decline after the inflection (β, −0.33 points/year; 95% CI, −0.44 to −0.22). Non-Hispanic Black children (β, 0.32 years; 95% CI, 0.20 to 0.43) and children of other non-Hispanic races (β, 0.16 years; 95% CI, 0.05 to 0.28) children had later timing of inflection compared with non-Hispanic White children. Children of mothers without (vs with) a college degree or with household income $70 000 per year or less (vs greater than $70 000/year) exhibited lower CVH trajectory throughout childhood. Children of mothers with some college education (vs a college degree) had later timing of inflection (β, 0.16 years; 95% CI, 0.07 to 0.26) and slower CVH score gain before the inflection (β, −0.24 points/year; 95% CI, −0.40 to −0.08). Conclusions This study provides insight into the trajectory of CVH early in life, which may contribute to CVH disparities in adulthood, and identified modifiable health behaviors for focused prevention efforts to optimize CVH in early life.