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Parental cardiometabolic factors, not obesity, help predict offspring risks
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Measuring cardiometabolic factors in parents could help determine future cardiovascular risks for their children, but the major mediator is not obesity, according to research presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research joint meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia.
In the Preventing High Blood Pressure in Children Study, Tanya L. Halvorsen, MD, PhD, and colleagues from the University of Minnesota collected data in parent-child pairs to assess the relationship between obesity and individual or combined risk factors.
Tanya L. Halvorsen
“We undertook this study because we hypothesized that individual risk factors would correlate within parent-child dyads and that some or all of these relationships would be mediated by adiposity,” Halvorsen told Endocrine Today in an interview. “If so, then the unprecedented prevalence of pediatric obesity that we are seeing today may herald a growing epidemic of cardiometabolic disease.”
The researchers measured adiposity, blood pressure, fasting lipid, glucose and insulin levels in 110 parents (mean age, 39 years), 153 children aged 10 to 14 years (mean age, 14 years) and 132 children aged 6 to 9 years (mean age, 7 years). The parents and older group of children also underwent euglycemic clamps to measure insulin. Parents who met criteria for at least three of five risk factors were classified as having metabolic syndrome. Cluster scores were used to quantify overall cardiometabolic risk in offspring.
Each individual risk factor in parents was significantly related to the corresponding factor in their offspring: BMI, waist circumference, total fat, subcutaneous fat, visceral fat, systolic BP, diastolic BP, total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides and insulin sensitivity. Correlations ranged from 0.23 to 0.39 (r=0.25; all P<.005) except total fat and diastolic BP, which showed weak correlations. Child cluster scores correlated with parental metabolic syndrome (P=.0001) and showed an inverse association with parental HDL and insulin sensitivity.
“What was novel, and contrary to our original hypothesis, was the finding that these relationships are not primarily explained by adiposity,” Halvorsen said.
With the results showing most cardiometabolic risk factors correlate within parent-child dyads, which Halvorsen noted is consistent with other studies looking at subsets of this risk factor panel, it is clear that considering family history is critical for appropriate preventive care.
“Children at higher risk of developing cardiometabolic disease can be targeted for closer monitoring and earlier intervention,” Halvorsen said. “And while obesity continues to be, without question, a very important problem to address, it is also important to pay attention to other parental risk factors, regardless of parent or child BMI.” — by Allegra Tiver
For more information:
Halvorsen TL. #2170.7. Presented at: the Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research joint meeting; May 3-6, 2014; Vancouver, British Columbia.
Disclosure: Halverson reports no relevant financial disclosures.