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Childhood Obesity and Autonomic Dysfunction: Risk for Cardiac Morbidity and Mortality

  • Pediatric Congenital Heart Disease (G Singh, Section Editor)
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Opinion statement

The epidemic of childhood obesity is becoming a major predictor for risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and mortality during adulthood. Alterations in the morphology of the heart due to obesity could be a predictor for the dysfunction of cardiac autonomic modulation (CAM). A number of epidemiologic studies have evaluated the effect of obesity and CAM in children, finding that obesity impaired the balance of CAM toward a sympathetic overflow and reduced parasympathetic modulation, a significant predictor of CVD morbidity and mortality in adults. Lifestyle modifications, for example long-term exercise programs, have been shown to improve CAM in the obese. This review discusses the recent evidence on childhood and adolescent obesity and its impact on CAM, as well as how early lifestyle changes could help improve CAM, which may in turn reduce the burden of CVD in adults.

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Acknowledgments

National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants: 1 R01 HL 097165, R01 HL63772, R21HL087858, and the Penn State CTSI Grant UL Tr000127. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

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Conflict of Interest Dr. Duanping Liao, Dr. Sol M. Rodríguez-Colón, Dr. Fan He, and Dr. Edward O. Bixler each declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State University College of Medicine, 90 Hope Drive, Suite 2000/A210, PO Box 855, Hershey, PA, 17033, USA

    Duanping Liao MD, PhD, Sol M. Rodríguez-Colón MS & Fan He MS

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA

    Edward O. Bixler PhD

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  1. Duanping Liao MD, PhD
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  2. Sol M. Rodríguez-Colón MS
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  3. Fan He MS
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Correspondence to Duanping Liao MD, PhD.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Pediatric Congenital Heart Disease

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Liao, D., Rodríguez-Colón, S.M., He, F. et al. Childhood Obesity and Autonomic Dysfunction: Risk for Cardiac Morbidity and Mortality. Curr Treat Options Cardio Med 16, 342 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11936-014-0342-1

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