The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends routine cholesterol screening only in children who have are overweight or who have a family history of heart disease, stroke, or high cholesterol. That seems reasonable, I suppose–my kids have both been tested, because they fall in those categories. The upshot of those tests: we’re keeping an eye on Toby’s numbers, and we’re actively working to improve Delaney’s.
So last month, when the results of a new study came out, indicating that not enough kids get tested, I was mildly interested, but not overly concerned. The study of West Virginia schoolchildren, published in the journal Pediatrics, concluded that the current testing guidelines probably only catch about 2/3 of kids who have high cholesterol.
I did some digging, and concluded that the outcome of the study–the idea of routinely testing all kids by age 10, is, predictably, controversial. Some of the concerns are highlighted in this CNN piece, as well as this Wall Street Journal article. Is it worth the expense of testing all those children? And what will doctors and parents do with that information? Is it safe to give cholesterol-lowering medication to children?
I can’t even pretend to know the answers to those questions. What I do know is this: heart disease begins in childhood, and given the state of the standard American diet, I can’t imagine what the health of today’s children is going to look like in 30 or 40 years.