Heart damage proven at a young age

The researchers studied 766 adolescents who wore a smartwatch for a week at regular intervals (11 years, 15 years, 24 years) from the age of eleven and whose lifestyle data had been recorded. At the ages of 17 and 24, an ultrasound examination was performed to determine the weight and volume of the left ventricle.

The data strongly suggest that there is an increasing trend towards a sedentary lifestyle and far too little physical activity as age progresses. At the age of eleven, the children spent an average of 362 minutes per day sitting, at the age of 15 this ‘screen time’ had already risen to 474 minutes. Young adults did not exercise for an average of 531 minutes per day. This represented a 2.8 hour increase in the amount of time spent physically inactive from childhood through adulthood.

The ultrasound examinations clearly showed that there was a relationship between the physical inactivity time per day and the weight or muscle thickness of the left ventricle. For the 24-year-old, that made a difference that doubled the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke or even death from cardiovascular disease, the researchers discovered.

“All those hours spent in front of screens by young people lead to a ‘heavier heart’. We know from studies that this puts adults at a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes,” says Andre Agbaje of the University of Eastern Finland (Kuopio). and teenagers need to move more again to secure their long-term health,” said the expert at the annual conference of European cardiologists in Amsterdam.