Hours of inactivity during childhood can predispose to heart attacks and strokes later in life.
- Between childhood and early adulthood, young people’s sedentary time increased by an average of two hours per day, from 362 minutes at age 11 to 531 minutes at age 24.
- Each one-minute increase in sedentary time between ages 11 and 24 was associated with a 0.004 g/min increase in left ventricular mass between ages 17 and 24.
- Those hours of inactivity translate to a heavier heart, which increases the likelihood of heart attack and stroke later in life.
Being inactive from childhood to early adulthood is associated with the occurrence of heart damage, independent of factors such as weight and blood pressure. This was revealed by researchers from the University of Finland in Kuopio at the 2023 congress of the European Society of Cardiology which takes place in Amsterdam. To reach this conclusion, they performed a study as part of the Children of the 90s research, which began in 1990/1991 and is one of the largest cohorts in the world whose lifestyle is assessed from birth.
Evaluate the sedentary lifestyle of 766 children using a connected watch
For the purposes of the work, the scientists asked 766 children aged 11 to wear a connected watch equipped with an activity tracker for seven days. This evaluation was also carried out when the participants were 15 and 24 years old. The weight of the left ventricle of their hearts was assessed by echocardiography, a type of ultrasound, at ages 17 and 24. Next, the team analyzed the association between sedentary time between ages 11 and 24 and heart measurements between ages 17 and 24 after adjusting for factors that may influence the link, including age, gender, blood pressure, weight, smoking, physical activity and socioeconomic status.
Heart: physical inactivity is linked to an increase in the mass of the left ventricular
According to the data, by the age of 11, children were sedentary for an average of 362 minutes per day, 474 minutes per day as teenagers (15 years old), and 531 minutes per day as adults (24 years old). This means that sedentary time increased by an average of two hours per day between childhood and early adulthood. The authors found that each one-minute increase in sedentary time between ages 11 and 24 was associated with a 0.004 g/min increase in left ventricular mass between ages 17 and 24. Multiplying this increase by 169 minutes of additional inactivity yields a daily increase of 0.7 g/m, or the equivalent of a 3 gram increase in left ventricular mass.
Heart attack, stroke: “all these hours of screen in young people translate into a heavier heart”
“Children were sedentary for more than six hours a day, and that time increased to nearly three hours a day as they reached adulthood. heavy, which studies in adults have shown increases the likelihood of heart attack and stroke.Children and adolescents need to move more to protect their long-term health.(…)Parents should encourage them to do so by taking them for walks and limiting time spent on social media and video games,” said Dr. Andrew Agbajed, author of the work, in a statement.
