Top Things to Know: Cardiovascular Health in the Transition from Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood
Prepared by Bernadette Okwu-Gage PhD MPH MBBS Associate Science and Medicine Advisor; EJ Cheon, PhD, Associate Science and Medicine Advisor
- Cardiovascular disease (CVD) persists as a major cause of mortality in the United States and currently there is some concern about the growing number of younger adults experiencing cardiovascular events.
- Emerging adulthood is a critical period of growth and development that can potentially affect the young person’s future capabilities and achievements. Yet many young people enter adulthood with significant CVD risk factors thus making this period crucial for age-appropriate health promotion and disease prevention efforts.
- Consequently, this scientific statement focuses on the critical need for cardiovascular health (CVH) promotion and prevention efforts during emerging adulthood (ages of 18 and 25 or 29 years).
- Social determinants of health (SDOH) play a crucial role in shaping cardiovascular health outcomes during emerging adulthood. Factors such as access to quality education, healthcare, safe neighborhoods, and economic stability are identified as key influences on CVH.
- Neighborhood factors influence the health of emerging adults as those who reside within segregated neighborhoods may experience poorer CVH compared to those who reside within more diverse communities.
- Psychosocial factors, such as emotional well-being, social support, and stress management remain critical to maintaining optimal CVH in emerging adults. This life stage often involves significant emotional stress due to changes in social roles, relationships, and responsibilities.
- The transition to emerging adulthood often includes unhealthy lifestyle changes, such as weight gain, decreased physical activity, and increased substance use, which negatively impacts CVH.
- Preconception and inter-conception health should also be given due attention among adolescence and emerging adults because of the strong relationship between poor pregnancy outcomes and future CVH.
- Emerging adults are ardent social media users and have been immersed in the internet throughout their lives. Therefore, these technologies can be harnessed as valuable tools for health promotion and prevention interventions to address their CVH outcomes.
- Comprehensive policy and system-level interventions are needed to support CVH in emerging adults such as policies that promote access to healthy foods, safe environments for physical activity, tobacco control, and healthcare access. Multi-sectoral collaboration would be needed to address this problem.
Citation
Scott J, Agarwala A, Baker-Smith CM, Feinstein MJ, Jakubowski K, Kaar J, Parekh N, Patel KV, Stephens J; on behalf of the American Heart Association Prevention Science Committee of the Council on Epidemiology and Prevention and Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; Council on Lifelong Congenital Heart Disease and Heart Health in the Young; and Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health. Cardiovascular health in the transition from adolescence to emerging adulthood: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. J Am Heart Assoc. Published online March 26, 2024. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.124.039239