The first clinical study of its kind finds children whose mothers have heart-healthy lifestyles live at least nine years longer without cardiovascular disease compared with those whose mothers have unhealthy lifestyles.
The study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology, is the first to examine if the heart health of parents is associated with the age at which offspring develop cardiovascular disease. In addition, it investigated the influence of each parent separately.
The study builds on previous research showing parents pass on health to their offspring through both genes and shared environment and lifestyle.
"Our study suggests that mothers are the primary gatekeepers of their children's health," said study author Dr. James Muchira of Vanderbilt University, Nashville and the University of Massachusetts.
"This maternal influence persists into the adulthood of their offspring."
The study involved offspring-mother-father trios from the Framingham Heart Study for 1,989 offspring, 1,989 mothers and 1,989 fathers.
It revealed offspring of mothers with ideal cardiovascular health lived nine more years free of cardiovascular disease than offspring of mothers with poor cardiovascular health. This came to 27 years versus 18 years, respectively.
Poor maternal cardiovascular health was linked with twice the hazard of early onset cardiovascular disease compared with ideal maternal cardiovascular health.
On the other hand, the heart health of fathers did not have a statistically significant effect on the length of time offspring lived without cardiovascular disease.
Sons were more affected than daughters by their mother's unhealthy lifestyle. Muchira said this is because sons have more unfavorable lifestyle habits than daughters, making the situation even worse.
"It shows that individuals can take charge of their own health," he said. "People who inherit a high risk from their mother can reduce that risk by exercising and eating well. If they don't, the risk will be multiplied."
Muchira said the strong contribution of mothers was likely a combination of health status during pregnancy and environment in early life.
"If mothers have diabetes or high blood pressure during pregnancy, those risk factors get imprinted in their children at a very early age. In addition, women are often the primary caregivers and the main role model for behaviors," he pointed out.
What the study suggests is that optimizing cardiovascular health among women of reproductive age and mothers with young children has the potential to break the intergenerational cycle of preventable cardiovascular disease.
"Family-based interventions should occur during pregnancy and very early in the child's life, so that the real impact of protective cardiovascular health tracks into adulthood," Muchira said. "For example, pairing mothers and young children in an exercise or diet improvement program. If children grow into healthy adults, they will not acquire the same cardiovascular risk as their parents, a situation that will raise the chances of having even healthier grandchildren."
