Heart disease looming threat for US obese teens: study

Heart disease looming threat for US obese teens: study
An overweight teenager. The epidemic of obesity among US teenagers could lead to double digit increases in cases of heart disease and heart-disease related deaths by 2035, according to a new study.(AFP/File/Ronaldo Schemidt)CHICAGO (AFP) - The epidemic of obesity among US teenagers could lead to double digit increases in cases of heart disease and heart-disease related deaths by 2035, according to a new study.
In a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers said today's epidemic was setting the scene for tomorrow's public health crisis, one that doctors will not be able to head off with traditional blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering drugs.
"Today's adolescents are the young adults of tomorrow, young adults who would ordinarily be working, raising their families, and not worried about heart disease until they are much older," said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, assistant professor in medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics at University of California at San Francisco.
"Our study suggests that more of these young adults will have heart disease when they are 30-35 years old, resulting in more hospitalizations, medical procedures, need for chronic medications, missed work days and shortened life expectancy."
Using computer modeling, the researchers projected that up to 37 percent of men and 44 percent of women who will be 35 in the year 2020 will be obese, based on the numbers of teenagers who were overweight in 2000.
These young adults are expected to have more heart attacks, more chronic chest pain and more premature deaths before they reach age 50 than previous generations.
The researchers said the lifestyle-driven disaster could increase the number of people with heart disease 16 percent over today's levels by 2035. That's an additional 100,000 cases.
The increase in obesity-related heart disease deaths could shoot up by as much as 19 percent, according to the projections in the study published Wednesday.
"We must recall that we all tend to gain weight as we age, so overweight in adolescents means even higher weights later on," said Lee Goldman, senior author of the paper and dean of Columbia University Medical Center in New York.
"Although the general findings of our analysis are not surprising, we were struck by the sheer magnitude of the impact of adolescent obesity and, as a result, how important it is as a public health priority."
Some nine million US adolescents are overweight, according to the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Childhood obesity rates have tripled since the 1970s, and studies show that 80 percent of overweight adolescents become obese adults.
The findings also suggested that aggressive drug treatment would reduce but not eliminate the projected cardiac complications.