Parent-Child Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factor Associations

The aim of this study was to assess parent-child interactions of coronary heart disease risk factors (total cholesterol, high and low density lipoprotein cholesterols, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and relative ponderosity) in parents and their pediatric-aged children in the Princeton School study. The study population included 430 parent-child pairs from 301 families. Forty-seven of these 301 families were "nuclear" (both parents and at least one child) and included 118 parent-child pairs. Univariate analyses of covariance were used to assess parent-child risk factor interactions and interrelationships. Interdependent coronary heart disease risk factor relationships were extensively shared by parents with their children. Knowledge of parental risk factor levels and their relationships and interactions with children's risk factor levels should be useful in identifying children at presumptively increased long-term risk as adults, and should illuminate metabolic relationships between parents and children for coronary heart disease risk factors.