The role of exercise prescription in pediatric preventive cardiology programs

Lifestyle changes such as exercise and dietary change are recommended first-line therapy for children with dyslipidemia, hypertension, and obesity. Although most clinicians recommend exercise, specific exercise prescriptions are not usually provided. The optimal type, duration, and intensity of activity to achieve a meaningful outcome is not definitively defined. As the pediatric population becomes more sedentary and morbidity accumulates from this lifestyle, understanding how targeted exercise prescriptions can benefit patients will be critical to effectively manage this group of patients. This review focuses on the role of exercise for the treatment of pediatric patients with dyslipidemia, hypertension, and obesity and describes additional factors that require future research to achieve desired outcomes in this at-risk population.