Objective: To determine the utility of a school-based questionnaire, to identify adolescents with adverse coronary risk factor levels.
Design: In Muscatine, IA, students (9th through 12th grade) completed a questionnaire providing medical history information about first- and second-degree relatives. Anthropometric measures were obtained and blood pressure, lipid, lipoprotein, and apolipoprotein levels were determined.
Results: A history of parental coronary heart disease (CHD) was rare and a history of parental high cholesterol frequently was unknown; however, when known, a history of high cholesterol or early (30 to 55 years of age) or later (> 55 years of age) CHD (myocardial infarction, coronary bypass, or death from a heart attack) in grandfathers enriched the identification of adolescents with adverse coronary risk factors. Parental history of CHD was associated with an increased risk for high body mass index and low apolipoprotein A1 levels in their children. Grandfather history of early or later CHD was associated with an increased risk for low apolipoprotein A1 and high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and high body mass index in their grandchildren. Students with positive grandfather histories of high cholesterol had higher total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, apolipoprotein B, and low density lipoprotein cholesterol to high density lipoprotein cholesterol ratios. Grandmother histories, because most were negative, did not help identify adolescents in this population with adverse coronary risk factors.
Conclusions: A parental history of CHD as well as a grandfather history of high cholesterol or CHD enriches the identification of children with adverse coronary risk factor levels. The positive predictive values associated with using a school-based history obtained from adolescents, many with the aid of their parents, are small and many adolescents do not know their family history. It is essential that pediatricians inquire about parental and especially grandparental medical histories in accordance with the National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines to help identify children at highest familial risk. The importance of determining parental and grandparental histories of CHD or hypercholesterolemia should be emphasized to families who are uncertain of their histories to identify children and adolescents who require a physician's care. It is also important for pediatricians to remind their colleagues who care for patients with premature ischemic heart disease to refer their progeny for pediatric care so that their lipids and lipoproteins may be screened and counseling provided.