A new study found that obesity in childhood will substantially increase future risk of heart attack and other cardiac events, media reported Thursday.

The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the greater the increase in the children's weight, the higher their risk of suffering heart disease in their future life.

The study also said that the obesity ratio would increase by 5 to 12 percent for the boys who are overweight now and 2 to 12 percent for the girls by 2020 in the United States, which means more heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure at a younger age.

"If we don't take steps to reverse course, the children of each successive generation seem destined to be fatter and sicker than their parents," said David Ludwig of Children's Hospital Boston in a commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine.

More than 9 million children in the United States are overweight now, and by 2035, the prevalence of heart disease will have increased by 5 to 16 percent, researchers estimated.

"My colleagues and I have predicted that pediatric obesity may shorten life expectancy in the United States by 2 to 5 years by mid-century -- an effect equal to that of all cancers combined," said Ludwig.

(Agencies via Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2007)