Nearly 1 in 10 younger adults have plaque in their arteries, according to a study of almost 17,000 people. Known as atherosclerosis, the build-up of fatty plaque can cause narrowing that reduces blood flow, leading to heart attacks and strokes. , so younger individuals may be assumed to be at low risk.
鈥淭he most important message is that atherosclerosis is already present in a meaningful fraction of people in their 20s and 30s,鈥� says at the University of Turku in Finland, who wasn鈥檛 involved in the study. 鈥淎therosclerosis is a lifelong process, not a disease of old age.鈥�
Previous studies have already suggested that atherosclerosis can occur surprisingly early. In 2025, Raitakari and his team found plaque in the carotid arteries 鈥� which supply blood to the head, face and neck 鈥� . But there hadn鈥檛 been large-scale investigations spanning multiple adult age categories that examined several artery locations.
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To fill this gap, at the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research in Madrid and his colleagues recruited almost 17,000 adults, aged 18 to 70, in Denmark and Spain. They divided the participants, who had no known atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, into five age groups, starting at 18 to 29. The study was made up of around the same number of men and women.
The researchers looked for plaque using CT angiography, which creates detailed 3D images of blood vessels, for arteries supplying the heart. They also used ultrasound for arteries in the neck and legs. Overall, they found 鈥渟ilent鈥� atherosclerosis in 57 per cent of the participants, including 63 per cent of men and 51 per cent of women. This is defined as plaque that isn鈥檛 causing any symptoms, but may lead to cardiovascular issues down the line.
In the youngest group, 9 per cent of the men and 7 per cent of the women had some degree of atherosclerosis.
Among those in their 30s, 35 per cent of the men and 21 per cent of the women had atherosclerosis. The numbers continued to rise with each decade, with women beginning to catch up with men around the age of menopause.
Atherosclerosis was generally more common among the participants with known risk factors, such as higher LDL cholesterol and blood pressure or a family history of the condition. But these factors didn鈥檛 reliably predict the presence of plaque, particularly among the younger adults.
The findings suggest that measures to detect plaque could identify people who seem to be at low risk of atherosclerosis, but might benefit from earlier preventive measures, such as medication or dietary changes.
But the presence of plaque doesn鈥檛 necessarily predict a future heart attack or stroke, says Raitakari, and there is no evidence that screening people without known health problems would prevent such events. The researchers also state that it is unclear if the results apply outside of Denmark and Spain.
The New England Journal of Medicine
