Prevention of cardiovascular disease in young adults: Focus on gender differences. A collaborative review from the EAS Young Fellows

A steady rise in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality has been observed in young adults within the last decades. This trend corresponds to an increasing prevalence of traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity and diabetes mellitus type 2 among young adults living in developed countries. Moreover, age-specific risk factors, such as substance abuse, contraceptive medication, and pregnancy-related diseases also correlate with an increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases. In this review, we discuss the available data for young adults on the epidemiology and the rationale for the causality of traditional and newly emerging risk factors of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. We focus on gender-related differences in the exposure to these risk factors, investigate the recent data regarding screening and risk stratification in the young adult population, and describe the current state of the art on lifestyle and therapeutic intervention strategies in the primary prevention setting. [Display omitted] •Cardiovascular morbidity and mortality of young adults showed a striking increase within the past decades.•Increased cardiovascular risk in young adults is mostly caused by prevalent behavioural risk factors (smoking, unhealthy diet, sleep disorders, and substance abuse).•Despite its initially low incidence, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and chronic inflammatory diseases rose steadily in young adults,further increasg their cardiovascular risk.•Gender-related aspects in young adults including hormonal changes and pregnancy-related disorders have to be considered in cardiovascular risk stratification.•Current diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular risk factors and comorbidities lack age- and gender-specific approaches that need further elaboration.