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(Circulation. 2009;119:1075-1077.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

Hypercholesterolemia Among Children

When Is It High, and When Is It Really High?

Stephen Cook, MD, MPH

From the Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester Medical Center, and Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong, Rochester, NY.

Correspondence to Dr Stephen Cook, MD, MPH, 601 Elmwood Ave, Box 777, Rochester, NY 14642. E-mail stephen_cook@urmc.rochester.edu

Key Words: Editorials • diagnosis • epidemiology • hypercholesterolemia • obesity • pediatrics

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

The rate of childhood obesity has at least tripled over the past 3 decades and has raised significant concerns about the cardiovascular health of America’s youth.¹ Some fear that as a result of the obesity epidemic, a wave of debilitating chronic conditions will afflict America’s youth. We do not yet know when, or even if, the wave of cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypercholesterolemia and type 2 diabetes, will crash into the health of our country’s young adults. Perhaps the real question is the impact of childhood obesity, and the accompanying risk factors, on the health of Americans in their 30s and 40s.

Article p 1108

The American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition released new guidelines on the screening and treatment of high cholesterol in children and adolescents.² The guidelines were an update from 1998 and were intended to define both a broad population approach and a targeted individual approach. The popular media focused on the message that statins could now be prescribed to obese children as young as 8 years of age, and they missed the message about population-based prevention through lifestyle changes in nutrition and physical activity. The concern for families and providers would be that any obese youth with elevated cholesterol would now need to start a medication that their grandparents also use.

The public health and epidemiology community has recently provided data on the trends of a number of cardiovascular risk factors in youth. There needs to be more clarity in regard to the current . . . [Full Text of this Article]