Project

Discipline

early life factors; epidemiology; carotid intima media thickness; environmental tabacco smoke; adolescence; childhood

Lead
Lay summary
Early life is considered a period of amplified susceptibility to adverse effects of exogenous and endogenous causes of diseases. Many chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, occurring in later life may in part be explained by priming factors experienced in early life and tracking of risk factors into older age. The Swiss Study on Air Pollution and Health In Adults cohort (SAPALDIA) has prospectively collected environmental, life-style and health related data in 9651 participants since 1991. The SAPALDIA Youth study, a retrospective cohort, offers the unique possibility to bridge time periods, early life and adolescence, by using the parental data as proxies for the early life environment of the offspring. . The SAPALDIA Youth Study aims at investigating the impact of early life and cumulative life-time ETS exposure on vascular health in childhood, measured by intima media thickness. The intima media thickness is considered an early marker of atherosclerosis in all ages. An increasing body of evidence documents the importance of childhood risk factors on the development of atherosclerosis in adults. Most studies in children have focused on metabolic and hemodynamic factors of early arterial injury. Early exposure to tobacco smoke, a major predictor of adult atherosclerosis, has only scarcely been studied, although ETS is known to be associated with adverse birth outcomes, respiratory disease in childhood and cardio-metabolic risk factors. The SAPALDIA Youth Study is based on the hypothesis that ETS exposure in pregnancy and childhood is associated with an increased intima media thickness, and further that the effect is amplified by recurrent childhood infectious diseases and chronic subclinical inflammation. These hypotheses are to be tested in a sample of 200 SAPALDIA Youth, aged 10-20 years, to equal parts ETS exposed in pregnancy and childhood and non-exposed controls. Parental smoking status and home ETS exposure, collected prospectively in 1991 and 2001, will serve as proxy for the youth's ETS exposure in childhood. The SAPALDIA Youth Study aims at a better understanding of the complex exogenous and endogenous risk factors of chronic diseases. ETS exposure in children continues to be highly prevalent and a major public health concern. Hence, the main aim of the proposed study is to investigate the role of early life ETS exposure in atherogenesis and thereby to contribute to the knowledge of adverse ETS effects on children's health and essentially to the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 21.02.2013

Active participation

Title	Year

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

Chronic diseases can partially be explained by early life priming factors and tracking of risk factors into older age. Intima media thickness (IMT) is considered an early marker of atherogenesis in child- and adulthood. Environmental tobacco exposure (ETS) in children is highly prevalent. ETS has been associated with childhood illnesses and cardio-metabolic risk factors. Little is known on the role of early life ETS exposure for atherogenesis. 200 off-spring of the Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution And Lung Diseases In Adults (SAPALDIA), born 1991-2001, to equal parts ETS exposed and non-exposed in childhood, will be recruited in 2010 to investigate the hypothesis that early life ETS exposure is associated with an increased IMT, potentially amplified by childhood infections. The prospectively collected parental data from SAPALDIA 1 and 2 offer the unique possibility to estimate unbiased early life environmental exposures, such as ETS, and to study their effect on atherogenesis.