Cardiovascular Screening in Youth

The objective of this project is to understand general providers’ screening and treatment processes and treatment options in children with a variety of cardiovascular disease risk factors. Currently, the national standard is to screen for hyperlipidemia and hypercholesterolemia every child within the ranges of 9 to 11 years old. Studies have shown this age to be a critical time that could possibly prevent the development of coronary artery disease as adults. With our study, we aimed to understand current knowledge and the practice patterns of practicing providers for cholesterol screening and treatment in children. Our study created opportunities to understand the knowledge gaps and barriers for universal screening in children ages 9-11 in order to develop improved screening processes and treatment interventions in children with cardiovascular disease risk factors to prevent the future escalation of atherosclerotic heart disease. We created an electronic questionnaire, which was advertised both through the NIH website and through NIH members’ emails, asking what current physicians are doing for cardiovascular screening and follow-up. Results showed that about 80% of providers agreed to screen all children ages 9-11, but there are still barriers to improve screening and treatment, including poor reimbursement and families’ opposition.