Parental influences on cardiovascular risk factors in Swedish children aged 5–14 years

Background: Precursors of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) originate in childhood. We investigated relationships of children’s CVD risk factors with parent’s socio-economic position (SEP) and lifestyle and how CVD risk factors correlate within families. Methods: We studied 602 families with 2141 individuals comprising two full sibs; aged 5–14 years, and their biological parents (Uppsala Family Study). Parental SEP (occupational class and education) and lifestyle habits [smoking, physical activity (PA), alcohol consumption] were taken from questionnaires. Associations with cholesterol, ApoB/ApoA1, leptin, adiponectin, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI) and overweight/obesity (OW/OB) were analysed by linear/logistic regression. Results were adjusted for child’s age, gender, pubertal stage and family clustering. Results: We observed no consistent associations between parental SEP and children’s CVD risk factors. Parental lifestyle had stronger effects, independent of parental SEP. Children of smoking fathers had higher BMI (4%, 95 % CI 1–7%) and leptin levels (27%, 95 % CI 1.00–61.60%). Children of mothers reporting vigorous PA had lower BMI, cholesterol and decreased odds for OW/OB with a possible dose effect. Compared with mothers reporting no vigorous activity, mothers with 75min and 76–150min/week of vigorous activity had 43 % (OR 0.57, 95 % CI 0.22–0.89) and 72 % (OR 0.28, 95 % CI 0.14–0.60) lower risk of having an OW/OB child, respectively, after adjustment fo