Kids and Cholesterol: New Guidelines Recommend Testing 9-to-11-Year-Olds

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails — and cholesterol?

Well, no one’s saying little boys (or girls) are actually made of the stuff, but plenty of them have too much of it. So a panel appointed by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute is recommending that all children between the ages of 9 and 11 be screened for high cholesterol.

As the Associated Press reports, the new guidelines, which are endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, were published online in Pediatrics today. They’ll be officially presented this weekend at a meeting of the American Heart Association.

As the WSJ has reported, heart disease begins to develop in childhood even if its major consequences — such as heart attacks — don’t generally occur until decades later. Research has found that risk factors including high cholesterol, if present at about age 9, can predict the thickening of neck-artery walls in early adulthood. And that, in turn, is a precursor to heart attacks and strokes, the paper reported.

A study of fifth-graders in West Virginia found that the previous guidelines for screening kids — which urged scrutiny only for those with a family history of heart problems or high cholesterol, or if the history wasn’t known — let some slip through the cracks. Almost 10% of kids who wouldn’t be checked according to those standards had abnormally high levels of LDL, or bad cholesterol.

Less than 1% of kids tested under the new guidelines would likely be advised to take cholesterol-lowering medications, the AP says; the rest would get advice on diet and exercise.

The new guidelines also advise on screening for diabetes, blood pressure, obesity and tobacco use.

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