Longitudinal Cardiac Outcomes and Body Composition
Condition: Cardiovascular Diseases; Heart Diseases; Hypertension
MeSH terms: Cardiovascular Diseases; Heart Diseases
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      To relate cardiac structure and blood pressure (BP) elevation in adults to childhood BP and
      body size and composition.
    

Detailed description: 
      BACKGROUND:

      To describe growth events adequately, long-term serial data with frequent measurements at
      appropriate ages are necessary. The study uses the Fels Longitudinal Study. In the Fels
      Longitudinal Study, data collection begins at birth, and all children are scheduled for
      measurements semiannually, on their birthdays and half birthdays, until the age of 18 years,
      after which they are scheduled every 2 years. The Fels study is unique with a rich 70-year
      history of ongoing serial data collection enabling the analysis of relationships of variables
      collected in childhood to cardiovascular risk factors well into late adulthood.

      DESIGN NARRATIVE:

      The study will link adult cardiac structure and hemodynamic function with long-term serial
      childhood data for body size, body composition and blood pressure. To address this goal, 685
      adult white active participants in the Fels Longitudinal Study, 352 men and 333 women 20 to
      70 years of age, will be studied. These adults were selected based on the availability of
      serial body size data from 2 to 18 years and serial body composition data from 8 to 18 years.
      Echo cardiographic data for cardiac structure and hemodynamic parameters will be collected
      from these 685 adults using well defined procedures with a well established quality control
      and assurance program. The availability of the long-term childhood records of these Fels
      participants for body size and composition provides a unique opportunity to relate childhood
      data to subsequent adult data for cardiac structure and blood pressure. The innovative
      longitudinal statistical analysis used will include covariates such as age, gender, birth
      year for secular trend, adulthood lifestyle (smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical
      activity), adult body size and composition, menopause, and medical condition and medication
      use. The analysis of the hypotheses in this study links cardiac structure and hemodynamic
      parameters in adulthood to childhood growth and body composition. Such linkages will reveal
      how various growth and body composition profiles and patterns during childhood can lead
      either to pathological or to healthy cardiac structure and hemodynamic parameters in
      adulthood. Understanding adult cardiac outcomes in response to changes in fat and fat-free
      mass from childhood into adulthood will provide important clues about potential physiologic
      mechanisms underlying the observed changes in body mass index (BMI). Elucidating adverse
      relationships through such a linkage can lead to the early identification of children at high
      risk for adult cardiovascular disease. This investigation will relate direct measures of body
      composition to adult cardiac structure and hemodynamic parameters.
    

Observational model: Cohort
Time perspective: Cross-Sectional
Sampling method: Probability Sample
Study population: 
        Echocardiographic measurements were made in 437 male and 492 female adults in the Fels
        Longitudinal Study who had serial measurements of body composition made and recorded as
        children. The selection criteria include participants who have at least 10 serial
        anthropometric visits between 2 and 20 years of age. The anthropometric measurements
        include weight and height for computation of BMI and blood pressure. Approximately one-half
        of the sample is 50 years and older.
      
Biospecimen description: 
      Only receiving data