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Overweight Preschoolers Already Showing Signs of Heart Disease Risk Factors

3/13/2009

New findings from researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine point to troubling signs of potential future heart disease risk in very young children who are overweight.   The team found overweight preschool age children with lower levels of “good” high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and higher levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), which can warn of inflammatory coronary heart disease.

The research team from the Departments of Pediatrics and Epidemiology and Public Health at the Miller School studied relationships between body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, CRP, total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol in 3,098 children ages 3 to 6 in representative samplings of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999-2004.  They presented their findings at the 49th Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention Annual Conference in Palm Harbor, Florida, on March 11.

“In our analysis of the national data we found that an overweight child is not a healthy child, and this is true even in children as young as 3 years old,” said Sarah Messiah, Ph.D., M.P.H., research assistant professor of pediatrics at the Miller School and lead author of the study.  “These children are experiencing a childhood on the edge of disease, potentially setting them up for chronic disease as young adults. Our findings indicate that it is imperative to intervene very early in a child’s life, before it is too late.”

Among the research findings:

• Elevated BMI and waist circumference both significantly predicted higher CRP levels in 5-year-old white girls and 6-year-old black and Hispanic boys.
• High BMI and waist circumference predicted lower HDL cholesterol in 3-year-old Hispanic girls and 5-year-old Hispanic boys.
• Elevated BMI significantly predicted lower HDL in 4-year-old Hispanic boys while waist circumference significantly predicted lower HDL in 5-year-old Hispanic girls.
• Elevated BMI only predicted elevated total cholesterol in 6-year-old black boys.

“The clinical data we examined clearly showed that elevated BMI and waist circumference similarly predicted abnormal cardiovascular disease risk factors,” said Messiah.  “A BMI screening with the addition of measuring the waist circumference is a simple test a pediatrician can do that may be effective to detect children in this age group at higher risk for subsequent cardiovascular disease.”