Dr Elena Kuklina (Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA) and her colleagues (Annalsj of Family Medicine) studied 2587 young adults—Men - ages 20 to 35 years and Women - ages 20 to 45 years (included in the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.) They felt that the low screening rates was of major concern, given the severity of atherosclerosis in young adult, which increases with the number of risk factors. The study showed that 55.2% of young adults (both men and women) had at least one CVD risk factor; 17.9% had two risk factors.
With regards to screening for elevated cholesterol levels, less than 50% of people were screened and of those the values were higher among women than men. With regards to CHD or CHD risk only 67% of young adults were screened for elevated cholesterol; and 47% of adults with two or more risk factors were screened.
It was seen and naturally so that the incidence of high cholesterol levels increased with the number of CHD risk factors. Of them over 65% of those with CHD/CHD risk had elevated LDL-cholesterol levels when compared to the 6.7% of those who had no risk factors at all. However it should be noted that the screening rate was less than 50% regardless of risk status.
The authors therefore concluded that there was a desperate need for fundamental improvements in youth getting risk assessments done and subsequent management for CVD in young adults through “evidence-based clinical and public health interventions”
Source:
Vijayalakshmi Iyengar
Sr Dietitian: NutritionVista.com
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