JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Childhood obesity increases early signs of cardiovascular disease even in children as young as 7 years old, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). The findings suggest a need more aggressive interventions for weight control in obese children, even those who do not have the co-morbidities of the metabolic syndrome.
Researchers screened more than 300 individuals ages 7 to 18 years and included only those without features of the metabolic syndrome. They included 202 participants in the study—115 obese children and 87 lean children as controls. Half of the children were prepubertal and the other half were in late puberty. Obese children had a body mass index (a measure of body fat) above the 95th percentile for their sex, age and height. To be eligible to participate in the study, the children and adolescents had to have normal fasting blood sugar levels, normal blood pressure and normal cholesterol and triglycerides. Lean controls also could not have a close relative with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure or obesity.
Participants underwent blood testing for known markers for predicting the development of cardiovascular disease. These included elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation, and abnormally high fibrinogen, a clotting factor, among others. Obese children had a tenfold higher CRP and significantly higher fibrinogen concentrations, compared with age- and sex-matched lean children, the authors reported. These abnormalities occurred in obese children as young as age 7, long before the onset of puberty.
“Our findings suggest that we need more aggressive interventions for weight control in obese children, even for those who do not have the co-morbidities of the metabolic syndrome,” said Nelly Mauras, MD, principal investigator and senior author.
