Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Arterial stiffness refers to the rigidity of the blood vessel wall and is an indicator of cardiovascular disease risk. Arterial stiffness increases with age, even in children. But there are ways to slow the progressive stiffening of arteries, including by being physically active. However, it is unknown if initiating an active lifestyle in the early years slows down the stiffening of arteries. To answer this, we followed a group of 400 boys and girls who were 3, 4, or 5 years old when they started the study. The children wore accelerometers around their waists to measure their physical activity over 7 days. They then came to the lab where we determined their arterial stiffness while they were lying down and resting. To do this we placed sensors that can pick up the pulse on their neck and foot. From this we could see how quickly the pulse travelled between these sites, with a faster travelling pulse indicating a stiffer artery. We repeated these same tests once a year for 3 years. We found that the children who engaged in greater amounts of intense activity (moderate to vigourous physical activity) had a slower increase in arterial stiffness than those who engaged in less. This suggests that engaging in more intense physical activity in early childhood may result in better cardiovascular health. We plan to follow these same children in future years to figure out of this relationship holds up through childhood to adolescence.