Early-Life Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Health: From Prevention to Performance

Physical activity during childhood and adolescence is a key determinant of cardiovascular development, influencing health trajectories across the lifespan while shaping both disease risk and physical performance. These critical developmental years provide unique opportunities for favorable cardiovascular adaptation, including cardiac and vascular remodeling, autonomic regulation, enhanced cardiorespiratory fitness, and the establishment of long-term cardiovascular health. Conversely, modern society shifts toward increasingly sedentary lifestyles and declining physical activity levels among children and adolescents, contributing to the early emergence of obesity, hypertension, metabolic dysfunction and reduced cardiorespiratory fitness, posing significant public health challenges worldwide. Accumulating evidence from epidemiological, experimental, and longitudinal studies demonstrates that physical activity during these formative years can promote healthy cardiovascular development and support both disease prevention and athletic performance. Nevertheless, important knowledge gaps remain regarding dose–response relationships, critical developmental windows, sex-specific adaptations, the mechanisms of adaptations, their variability across populations, their translation into adult cardiovascular outcomes, and the long-term clinical significance of cardiovascular adaptations established during childhood. In addition, advances in wearable technologies, digital health, imaging, and biomarker research offer unprecedented opportunities to better characterize cardiovascular development and individual responses to physical activity, yet their integration into pediatric research and clinical practice remains limited. This Research Topic provides a multidisciplinary platform to advance our understanding of how physical activity influences cardiovascular health throughout childhood and adolescence - from primary prevention to the enhancement of athletic performance. We particularly welcome studies that investigate the physiological mechanisms, modifiers, and lasting outcomes of cardiovascular adaptation. By bringing together clinicians, physiologists, sports scientists, public health experts and other related fields, this collection aims to promote translational research that bridges fundamental science, clinical practice and population health. We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:o Cardiovascular adaptations to physical activity and exercise in children and adolescentso Cardiac and vascular remodeling during growth, maturation and pubertyo Physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness, and exercise capacity as determinants of cardiovascular healtho Physical activity and overall prevention of cardiovascular risk factors, including obesity, hypertension, metabolic dysfunction, and other exercise physiology, training strategies, and performance optimization in youth athleteso Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), field-based fitness assessment, and innovative approaches to functional evaluationo Early-life determinants - including genetic, environmental, and behavioral factors - of cardiovascular development and performanceo Impact of sedentary behavior, screen time, and lifestyle patterns on cardiovascular health in pediatric populationso Cardiovascular screening approaches and risk assessment methodologies for young athleteso Sex differences, sex-specific responses, biological maturation, and developmental considerations in exercise and cardiovascular adaptationo Application of innovative methodologies, wearable technologies, and novel biomarkers for assessing cardiovascular performance and health outcomeso Experimental, translational, and longitudinal studies that link childhood physical activity patterns with adult cardiovascular disease risk and athletic achievemento Implementation and evaluation of physical activity interventions in pediatric and adolescent populations Topic editors: Sebastian Freilinger, Renate Maria Oberhoffer, Jonas Haferanke Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85577/early-life-physical-activity-and-cardiovascular-health-from-prevention-to-performance