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Weight loss may normalize adult diabetes risk in boys
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SAN DIEGO — Men who had overweight at age 7 years but normal weight in young adulthood had the same risk for developing type 2 diabetes as men who had never had excess body weight, according to results of a large population-based study.
Men who had elevated BMI in young adulthood, despite childhood weight status, had triple the risk for developing type 2 diabetes as the men who had normalized their weight.
“Our results suggest that adverse consequences for type 2 diabetes of childhood overweight are reversible,” Lise G. Bjerregaard, PhD, of the Institute of Preventive Medicine at Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, told Endocrine Today. “Therefore, it is very beneficial for overweight boys, and possibly girls, to normalize their weight before adulthood. If they do, they can reduce their otherwise sharply increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in adulthood.”
As part of the DynaHEALTH project, Bjerregaard and colleagues evaluated data from the Copenhagen School Health Records Register and the Danish Conscription Database on 62,565 Danish men born from 1939 to 1959. Weight and height had been recorded at ages 7 years and approximately 18 years (range, 17 to 26 years). The researchers used definitions of childhood overweight from the CDC (BMI 17.38 kg/m2) and adult overweight from WHO (BMI 25 kg/m2). Type 2 diabetes status at age 30 years or older, between 1977 and 2015, was determined from the National Patient Register.
Among the cohort, 6,710 had type 2 diabetes as adults; 5.4% had overweight as children and 8.2% as young adults; and 40% of boys with overweight became young adults with overweight. Compared with boys and men with normal weight, the HR for diabetes for boys with overweight at age 7 years was 1.53 (95% CI, 1.4-1.68) and for those with overweight at age 18 years was 2.96 (95% CI, 2.78-3.15). The HR for developing diabetes for boys with overweight who had lost weight in adolescence was 1.01 (95% CI, 0.87-1.16) and 2.88 (95% CI, 2.4-3.44) for those who did not lose weight. Those who had normal weight in childhood but excess body weight as young adults had an HR for diabetes of 2.95 (95% CI, 2.53-3.45).
The most surprising finding, according to Bjerregaard, was “that boys who grow out of their overweight from childhood to young adulthood had such a similar risk to boys who were normal weight both at age 7 and 18 years. I expected that they could reduce their risk, but not as completely as they did.”
These findings highlight the need to control weight in childhood, Bjerregaard said. – by Jill Rollet
Reference:
Bjerregaard LG. 11-OR. Presented at: American Diabetes Association 77th Scientific Sessions; June 9-13, 2017; San Diego.
Disclosures: DynaHEALTH is funded by the European Commission’s Horion 2020 program. Bjerregaard reports no relevant financial disclosures.