Issues for cardiovascular disease risk factor development in Europe

A review of U.S. and European clinical trials and cardiovascular prevention studies indicates a strong relation among cardiovascular disease risk fact ors and between metabolic factors and health behaviors established in youth . Social and behavioral determinants of risk are best modified by strategie s applied in schools, families, and whole communities to provide a firm bas e for primordial prevention of risk factor development. This is illustrated with results from a European intervention trial and from observational stu dies in the young, (C) 1999 American Health Foundation and Academic Press.