PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New study seeks to understand the links between social drivers of health by investigating cardiovascular health in young adults

“Detailing childhood social determinants helps target those factors that drive cardiovascular disease in adulthood”

2025-09-03
(Press-News.org) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, September 3, 2025

Contact: Gina DiGravio, 617-358-7838, ginad@bu.edu

 

New Study Seeks to Understand the Links between Social Drivers of Health by Investigating Cardiovascular Health in Young Adults

“Detailing childhood social determinants helps target those factors that drive cardiovascular disease in adulthood”

 

(Boston)—Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death and disability for adults in the U.S. Recent projections from the American Heart Association suggest that by 2050, more than 45 million American adults will have clinical CVD and more than 184 million will have hypertension. As a result, inflation-adjusted direct health care costs related to CVD risk factors are projected to triple between 2020 and 2050, to $1.34 trillion annually, and direct costs related to clinical CVD conditions are projected to rise from $393 billion to $1.49 trillion. Thus, understanding early-life determinants of cardiovascular health behaviors and health factors are of particular interest.

In the first prospective study of social determinants from birth, and how they impact young adult cardiovascular health, researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and colleagues are investigating the upstream causes of cardiovascular disease — the factors that drive poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle, nicotine exposure, poor sleep, obesity, and adverse blood cholesterol, blood pressure and blood glucose levels. Known as the Future of Families Cardiovascular Health Among Young Adults (FF-CHAYA) Study, a new paper describes the rationale, study design, methods and characteristics of the FF-CHAYA cohort, a novel longitudinal study designed to examine associations of childhood social determinants with young adult cardiovascular health and early arterial injury.

“In recent years, social determinants of health (SDoH) have received significant attention as upstream societal and structural factors that drive the propensity for beneficial or adverse health outcomes. While data on SDoH among middle-aged adults is increasingly available, as are longitudinal associations with downstream health outcomes, investigations examining the full array of SDoH in children and prospective associations with health outcomes is rare,” explains corresponding author Donald Lloyd-Jones, MD, ScM, professor of medicine at the school and director of the Framingham Heart Study.

Using the largest and longest running study of a representative group of children born between 1998-2000, the researchers examined more than 2,000 young adults (average age 23 years) from 22 cities across the U.S. who had been followed since birth. Families provided information on socioeconomic status, neighborhood conditions, environmental exposures, schools, behavior and other psychosocial factors up to seven times during early life. As young adults, all participants answered detailed questions about health status and health behaviors, and three-quarters of them had in-person examinations with checks on height, weight, body shape, blood pressure and blood drawn for clinical measures. Those same young adults also underwent sophisticated ultrasound imaging of the carotid arteries in the neck to look for signs of early arterial injury. The researchers are now linking their detailed sociological data with state-of-the-art, quantitative measures of cardiovascular health in young adulthood.

According to the researchers, detailing childhood social determinants helps target those factors that drive poor cardiovascular health across the life course. “Ultimately we hope it will guide pediatricians, family practitioners and even public health policy makers to those things that will launch children into better lifelong health trajectories,” adds Lloyd-Jones.

These findings appear online in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Funding for this study was provided by grant R01 HL149869 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and supported by institutional funding from Princeton University and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Note to editor:

Dr Lloyd-Jones serves as an unpaid fiduciary director of the American Heart Association.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New catalysis method can generate a library of novel molecules for drug discovery

2025-09-03
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Using reprogrammed biocatalysts, researchers are pushing the boundaries of enzymatic synthesis with a method that opens the door to a diverse array of valuable compounds. Reporting in the journal Science, UC Santa Barbara chemistry professor Yang Yang and collaborators detail an enzymatic multicomponent reaction, resulting in six distinct molecular scaffolds, many of which were not previously accessible by other chemical or biological methods. “The ability to generate novelty and molecular diversity is particularly important to medicinal chemistry,” Yang said. “For a long time, biocatalysis ...

Delta-8 THC use highest where marijuana is illegal, study finds

2025-09-03
Researchers from University of California San Diego have found that Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-8 THC), a psychoactive compound often sold as a legal alternative to marijuana, is most commonly used in states where marijuana use remains illegal and delta-8 THC sales are unregulated. The findings, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, highlight how gaps in cannabis policy may be inadvertently steering people toward less-regulated substances and have allowed manufacturers to evade restrictions ...

Study shows blood conservation technique reduces odds of transfusion by 27% during heart surgery

2025-09-03
OKLAHOMA CITY – A University of Oklahoma study published Sept. 3 in JAMA Surgery reports that acute normovolemic hemodilution (ANH) – a blood-saving method in which a patient’s blood is collected before going on heart-lung bypass and reinfused near the end of cardiac surgery – remains underused in the United States at 14.7%. Yet the study found that ANH lowered the likelihood of a transfusion by 27%, a decrease in blood use that could cut costs substantially while still protecting patient safety and outcomes. Global demand for cardiac surgery ...

Mapping an entire subcontinent for sustainable development

2025-09-03
Using the first complete dataset of more than 415 million buildings across 50 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, researchers at the University of Chicago created an unprecedented approach to urban development, down to each street block. The new analysis, published this week in Nature, pinpoints where rapidly developing nations lack “last mile” infrastructure and access to public services. It uses high-resolution data to measure street access to each building across the subcontinent, showing ...

Complete brain activity map revealed for the first time

2025-09-03
The first complete activity map of the brain has been unveiled by a large international collaboration of neuroscientists. The International Brain Laboratory (IBL) researchers published their findings today in two papers in Nature, revealing insights into how decision-making unfolds across the entire brain in mice at the resolution of single cells. This brain-wide activity map challenges the traditional hierarchical view of information processing in the brain and shows that decision-making is distributed across many regions in a highly coordinated ...

Children with sickle cell disease face higher risk of dental issues, yet many don’t receive needed care

2025-09-03
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Children with sickle cell disease are more likely to have dental problems — but fewer than half of those covered by Michigan Medicaid got dental care in 2022, according to a new study. The findings, led by Michigan Medicine and non-profit RAND Corporation, appear in JAMA Network Open. “Sickle cell disease is known to increase the risk of dental complications in children, which underscores the importance of preventive dental care for this population,” said senior author Sarah Reeves, Ph.D., M.P.H., an associate professor of pediatrics ...

First brain-wide map of decision-making charted in mice

2025-09-03
PRINCETON, NJ - Mice turning tiny steering wheels to move shapes on a screen have helped scientists produce the first brain-wide map of decision-making at single-cell resolution in a mammal. For decades, most neuroscience studies have focused on small clusters of cells in isolated brain regions. “But this method is flawed,” said Ilana Witten, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience at Princeton University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. “The brain is constantly making decisions during everyday ...

Mechanical forces drive evolutionary change

2025-09-03
To the point: Small fold – big role: A tissue fold known as the cephalic furrow, an evolutionary novelty that forms between the head and the trunk of fly embryos, plays a mechanical role in stabilizing embryonic tissues during the development of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Combining theory and experiment: Researchers integrated computer simulations with their experiments and showed that the timing and position of cephalic furrow formation are crucial for its function, preventing mechanical instabilities in the embryonic tissues. Evolutionary response ...

Safe, practical underground carbon storage could reduce warming by only 0.7°C – almost 10 times less than previously thought

2025-09-03
A new IIASA-led study for the first time maps safe areas that can practically be used for underground carbon storage, and estimates that using them all would only cut warming by 0.7°C. The result is almost ten times lower than previous estimates of around 6°C, which considered the total global potential for geological storage, including in risky zones, where storing carbon could trigger earthquakes and contaminate drinking water supplies. The researchers say the study shows geological storage is a scarce, finite resource and warn countries must use ...

Chinese scientists reveal hidden extinction crisis in native flora

2025-09-03
A new study has revealed a "hidden extinction crisis" in China's flora, showing that habitat decline over the past four decades has sharply increased extinction risks nationwide. The findings, published in One Earth on September 3, suggest that current conservation efforts are failing to keep pace with biodiversity threats. Led by Dr. SHEN Guozhen from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with international collaborators, the researchers combined satellite-based land-cover data (1980–2018) with species-composition models to quantify—for ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Crosswalk confusion: MA drivers flummoxed by pedestrian hybrid beacons, find UMass Amherst researchers

Study shows heart disease mortality disproportionately burdens low-income communities in California

Intracardiac echocardiography recognized as ‘transformative’ imaging modality in new SCAI position statement

Study finds ‘man’s best friend’ slows cellular aging in female veterans

To get representative health data, researchers hand out fitbits

Hiring in high-growth firms: new study explores the timing of organizational changes

Boosting work engagement through a simple smartphone diary

Climate change may create ‘ecological trap’ for species who can’t adapt

Scientists create ChatGPT-like AI model for neuroscience to build one of the most detailed mouse brain maps to date

AI and omics unlock personalized drugs and RNA therapies for heart disease

2023 ocean heatwave ‘unprecedented but not unexpected’

Johns Hopkins researchers develop AI to predict risk of US car crashes

New drug combination offers hope for men with advanced prostate cancer

New discovery finds gene converts insulin-producing cells into blood-sugar boosters

Powerful and precise multi-color lasers now fit on a single chip

Scientists agree chemicals can affect behavior, but industry workers more reluctant about safety testing

DNA nanospring measures cellular motor power

Elsevier Foundation and RIKEN launch “Envisioning Futures” report: paving the way for gender equity and women’s leadership in Japanese research

Researchers discover enlarged areas of the spinal cord in fish, previously found only in four-limbed vertebrates

Bipolar disorder heterogeneity decoded: transforming global psychiatric treatment approaches

Catching Alport syndrome through universal age-3 urine screening

Instructions help you remember something better than emotions or a good night’s sleep

Solar energy is now the world’s cheapest source of power, a Surrey study finds

Scientists reverse Alzheimer’s in mice using nanoparticles

‘Good’ gut bacteria boosts placenta for healthier pregnancy

USC team demonstrates first optical device based on “optical thermodynamics”

Microplastics found to change gut microbiome in first human-sample study

Artificially sweetened and sugary drinks are both associated with an increased risk of liver disease, study finds

Plastic in the soil, but not as we know it: Biodegradable microplastics rewire carbon storage in farm fields

Yeast proteins reveal the secrets of drought resistance

[Press-News.org] New study seeks to understand the links between social drivers of health by investigating cardiovascular health in young adults
“Detailing childhood social determinants helps target those factors that drive cardiovascular disease in adulthood”