The young@heart initiative aims to ensure that every child born today in the UK should be able to live to at least the age of 65 free from avoidable coronary heart disease (CHD). The initiative advocates a lifecourse approach to prevention that addresses the modifiable lifestyle risk factors of smoking, poor diet and physical inactivity along with poverty. There is extensive research evidence on coronary heart disease and it’s risk factors for such an approach.

As a foundation for young@heart, the NHF commissioned reviews of this research by experts in the public health field. The findings have informed a draft policy framework of recommendations.

Brief introductions to the twelve review papers, on the theme of coronary heart disease risk factors in the young and development of the disease appear below.

The review papers will be published in full as part of an NHF report on young@heart in due course. Further details will be posted on this site when available.

The fetal and infant origins of coronary heart disease
Professor David Barker

A first analysis of ischaemic heart disease morbidity by age 53 years in relation to childhood and adult risk factors in the 1946 birth cohort
Professor Michael Wadsworth and Dr Rebecca Hardy

Raised blood pressure, height, weight, blood lipid levels and other physiological measurements in children and adolescents and the corresponding risk of CHD in adults
Dr Peter McCarron and Professor George Davey Smith

Socioeconomic position and coronary heart disease risk factors in children and young people ­ evidence from UK epidemiology studies
Dr David Batty and Professor David Leon

Ethnic minority young people and health
Dr Marie-Claude Gervais and Hamid Rehman

Social issues which underlie childhood behaviour applicable to coronary heart disease risk in adulthood
Dr Paul Harker and Dr Ann Hemingway

Discussion of the social and cultural context of children’s lifestyles and the production of health variations relevant to adult risk of CHD
Dr Kathryn Backett-Milburn, Dr John Davis and Dr Sarah Cunningham-Burley

Recent evidence on the diet of children in the UK: Implications for coronary heart disease prevention
Karen McColl

What are the determinants of young people’s participation in physical activity? Does activity in childhood continue into adulthood?
Nick Cavill and Professor Stuart Biddle

The relationship between physical activity during childhood and adolescence, and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in young adults
Dr Melvyn Hillsdon and Charlie Foster

Policy implications for reducing smoking in young people
Dr Ann McNeill

Health promotion in primary care: What works, what doesn’t work
Dr Aidan Macfarlane