Early life factors and later metabolic syndrome in European children and adolescents

Kathrin Günther; Maren Pflüger; Gabriele Eiben; Licia Iacoviello; Lauren Lissner; Staffan Mårild; Dénes Molnár; Luis A Moreno; Paola Russo; Stalo Papoutsou; Toomas Veidebaum; Stefaan de Henauw; Wolfgang Ahrens; Maike Wolters; Claudia Börnhorst; IDEFICS and I.Family consortia

doi:10.1016/j.numecd.2024.103808

Early life factors and later metabolic syndrome in European children and adolescents

Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2024 Nov 30:103808. doi: 10.1016/j.numecd.2024.103808. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS, Bremen, Germany. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS, Bremen, Germany; Clinical-epidemiological Cancer Registry Brandenburg-Berlin, Cottbus, Germany.
³ University of Skövde, School of Health Sciences, Skövde, Sweden.
⁴ Laboratory of Molecular and Nutritional Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, IRCCS Instituto Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed, Pozzilli, Isernia, Italy.
⁵ School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
⁶ Department of Paediatrics, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
⁷ Department of Pediatrics, Medical School, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
⁸ GENUD (Growth, Exercise, Nutrition and Development) Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad de Zaragoza, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón (IA2), Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón (IIS Aragón), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERObn), Zaragoza, Spain.
⁹ Institute of Food Sciences, National Research Council, Avellino, Italy.
¹⁰ Research and Education Institute of Child Health, Strovolos, Cyprus.
¹¹ Department of Chronic Diseases, National Institute for Health Development, Tallinn, Estonia.
¹² Department of Public Health, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
¹³ Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS, Bremen, Germany; Institute of Statistics, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
¹⁴ Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS, Bremen, Germany.

PMID: 39779451
DOI: 10.1016/j.numecd.2024.103808

Abstract

Background and aims: Early life factors have been suggested to be associated with later cardiometabolic risk in children, adolescents and adults. Our study aimed to investigate the associations between early life factors and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in children and adolescents.

Methods and results: Our analysis sample comprised of 8852 children aged 2-9 years at baseline that participated in up to three examination waves of the pan-European IDEFICS/I.Family cohort (baseline: 2007/08, 1st follow-up 2009/10, 2nd follow-up 2013/14). Mixed-effects models were used to estimate the associations between early life factors and MetS score and z-scores of waist circumference (WC), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), Homeostasis Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) and triglycerides. Being born large for gestational age (LGA) showed a positive association with MetS score (β = 0.67; 99%CI 0.44, 0.90) and with WC z-score (β = 0.51; 99%CI 0.39, 0.63) and was weakly inversely associated with HDL z-score. Being born small for gestational age (SGA) was associated with lower WC z-score (ß = -0.26; 99%CI -0.37, -0.16), with a lower MetS score (ß = -0.13; 99%CI -0.33, 0.08) and slightly higher z-scores of SBP and DBP. Weight gain during pregnancy was positively associated with MetS score and WC z-score while premature birth was positively associated with SBP.

Conclusions: Children born LGA, SGA or preterm may warrant closer monitoring to prevent MetS later on.

Keywords: Blood pressure; Dyslipidemia; IDEFICS/I.Family study; Insulin resistance; Metabolic syndrome; Peri-; Postnatal factors; Pre-; Waist circumference.