NOTTINGHAM, United Kingdom—A second systematic review of research into childhood obesity and metabolic disease in adulthood has found little evidence of a direct link and suggests treating obesity during childhood will remove any risk of lasting harm.
Published in the International Journal of Obesity, the study was conducted by nutrition experts at the University of Nottingham and strengthens their previous findings that individuals could, in fact, be more at risk of health problems if they are lean as children and become obese as adults. Unexpectedly, the work suggests there could even be a slight protective effect if individuals are overweight as children and reduce their body mass index (BMI) in adulthood.
They realized previous studies suggesting that childhood obesity permanently raises risk of disease failed to take into account adult BMI. The team reviewed 11 academic studies that examined the health of thousands of people living in Westernized countries. They found when adult BMI was accounted for, people at the lower end of BMI in childhood who became obese later in life actually had the highest chances of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
They noted there is substantial evidence that childhood obesity tracks into adulthood and it is clear that adult obesity puts us at higher risk of metabolic disease.
“Targeting childhood and adolescence for prevention and treatment of obesity is wholly appropriate in order to establish a healthy weight moving forward into the adult years," they said. “However, we have found that the nature of the relationship between early BMI and adult disease risk is very complex."
They said people at the lower end of the BMI range in childhood and go on to be obese as adults seem to be at particular risk. “Therefore, by focusing on children who are overweight or obese for the promotion of health weight management we may be missing an important at-risk group," they said.
