Harnessing childhood fitness to predict heart health

Blog: Wednesday 21 January 2026

Building strong hearts starts in childhood

Dr Brooklyn Fraser is a 2022 Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania. Her research focuses on better understanding how fitness in childhood influences heart health later in life – with the goal of improving long-term cardiovascular outcomes through early prevention.

Three out of four kids aged five to 14 don’t get the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity per day1, putting them at greater risk of heart disease as adults.

Physical fitness is a powerful indicator of current and future health and establishing fitness early in life can have long-lasting benefits. Understanding how physical fitness in childhood influences long-term heart health is central to Dr Brooklyn Fraser’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a critical step toward identifying the best ways to boost fitness levels in kids to prevent heart disease in the future. Her research also explores how different parts of a child’s daily routine, like how much they move, sleep, or sit still, can affect their fitness.

Dr Fraser’s work goes beyond traditional heart health risk factors, strengthening calls for prediction tools to more accurately identify children at higher risk of heart problems through consideration of their fitness levels. With strong potential to inform government policy and improve population health, her research lays the foundation for targeted, evidence-based prevention programs that can reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease for future generations. These insights have direct implications for public health guidelines, early intervention strategies, and school-based fitness programs like Jump Rope for Heart.

For over 40 years, Jump Rope for Heart has helped more than 10 million children in Australia skip their way to better heart health and build life-long activity habits. Money raised throughout the program help to fund vital research, like the work of Dr Brooklyn Fraser. You can support our mission by registering your school for the Jump Rope for Heart program.