Linking childhood diet to adult heart health

The relationship between diet quality in childhood and cardiometabolic health and low-grade chronic inflammation in adolescence and early adulthood

Heart and circulatory diseases normally occur in adults, but the underlying processes can begin early in life. It is thought that poor diets during childhood affect ‘cardiometabolic risk factors’ and lead to a state of continuous inflammation in the body. However, few studies have explored this connection in children when lifelong habits are formed. Dr Buckland will use data from around 3000 people studied from birth to 24 years old in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. She will look to identify ‘patterns’ of diet-quality based on three-day diet diaries completed by children at 7, 10 and 13 years of age. This will be added to information about cardiometabolic risk factors, blood pressure, body fat percentage and circulatory health that were collected when the children reached 17 and 24 years old. Tests for molecules linked to inflammation will be carried out on blood collected at 24 years old. By linking indicators of cardiometabolic health later in life to diet quality during childhood, Dr Buckland hopes to show which of the identified dietary patterns are associated with lowered cardiometabolic risk factors. The results will contribute to the scientific evidence needed to help young people adopt healthy eating habits and reduce heart disease and diabetes later in life.