COMs Community Webinar: Cardiovascular Health and Childhood Obesity, 24 September 2024

COMs Community Webinar: Cardiovascular Health and Childhood Obesity, 24 September 2024

Members of the EASO COMs network are warmly invited to join our upcoming webinar, “Cardiovascular Health and Childhood Obesity” on Tuesday 24th September 2024 at 11:30am-12:30pm UK / 12:30-1:30 pm Paris.

This EASO COMs webinar will explore cardiovascular health in childhood, with focus on its relation to childhood obesity. Expert speakers will cover both the scientific mechanisms underlying cardiovascular health in children with obesity, and practical approaches to population screening for cardiovascular risk factors in childhood. Early identification and management of vascular risk factors will be emphasised for enhanced childhood health.

First, delegates will be introduced to the topic with an overview of cardiovascular complications associated with childhood obesity, including insights from the Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Childhood Obesity (ULSCO) on inflammation, hypertension, T2DM, and NAFLD, as well as genetic, behavioural, and environmental risk factors for poorer cardiovascular health. Community-based approaches to addressing these risk factors will be discussed. Next, the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC) and the European Childhood Obesity Group (ECOG)’s position statement on lifestyle interventions to change trajectories of obesity-related cardiovascular risk from childhood to adulthood will be discussed, highlighting current research gaps and strategies in this field. Delegates will also learn about the importance of population-level screening programmes for cardiovascular risks in children and interventions to improve cardiometabolic health in childhood. Results from the Swiss population-based prospective cohort study Exercise and Arterial Modulation in Youth (EXAMIN YOUTH) will be presented highlighting the urgence for implementation of primary prevention programmes for obesity and hypertension early in life to prevent cardiovascular disease burden later in life.

Professor Melania Manco, Paediatric Chair of the COMs Working Group, will host this webinar. Attendees are encouraged to actively participate in the webinar Q&A.

Schedule (CET):

  • 12:30-12:35 pm: Welcome and introduction
  • 12:35-12:55 pm:Introduction to cardiovascular health in paediatric obesity – Professor Peter Bergsten (MD, PhD; Professor at Department of Medical Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Uppsala University, Sweden)
  • 12:55-1:15 pm: Screening programs for obesity-related cardiovascular risk and management strategies – Professor Henner Hanssen (MD; Professor of Preventive Sports Medicine and Consultant Physician Internal Medicine, Head of Preventive Sports Medicine and Systems Physiology at the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health at the University of Basel, Switzerland)
  • 1:15-1:30 pm: Q&A between speakers and audience, close

Register for this EASO COMs webinar hosted on Zoom using this registration link.