Act fast in overweight infants!

    

    

Doctors newspaper online, 22.07.2019

    

        
        
        

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Metabolic disturbances

A study makes it clear that overweight should be counteracted quickly in overweight infants – otherwise metabolic disturbances may occur.

The study findings revealed that children who were considered overweight at the time of the first data collection developed several components of the metabolic syndrome in 19 percent of the cases.

© kwanchaichaiudom / Fotolia

BREMEN. Once children are overweight, they often develop metabolic disturbances such as hypertension, poor blood lipid levels, and increased glucose or insulin levels in subsequent years.

This is the result of a recent study involving ten European institutions led by the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS ( Int J Epidemiol 2019; online May 16 ).

In the IDEFICS study, more than 16,000 children were aged aged from two to nine years in eight European countries (Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Hungary and Cyprus) investigated the influence of diet and lifestyle on their health.

Part of the children – now between 7 and 17 years old – was re-examined at a later time in the recently published BIPS-led follow-up study I.Family. In addition, family members were also interviewed. The data were evaluated from 6768 children, who were examined repeatedly over a six-year span.

The surveys included questionnaires as well as physical examinations and the collection of blood, saliva and urine samples. "These data enabled us to analyze changes in the metabolic status of infants through to adolescence," says study author Dr. Claudia Börnhorst from the BIPS in a statement from the institute.

16 percent abdominally overweight

The researchers identified five key groups: most children were metabolically healthy (62 percent), 16 percent had an increased waistline and were considered abdominally overweight, 9 percent had a lipid metabolism disorder, 7 percent had hypertension, and 6, 6 percent combined several components of the metabolic syndrome.

These include: obesity, hypertension, lipid disorders (poor blood lipid levels) and increased glucose / insulin levels. They are all considered as signs of a metabolic disorder. As soon as three or even four of the risk factors mentioned above exceed prescribed limits, we speak of a metabolic syndrome.

"Surprisingly we found that even in the considered 6-year period, hardly any child in the group with multiple components of the metabolic syndrome managed to return to the metabolically healthy status," says Börnhorst. This underlines the importance of early intervention. "Abdominal obesity seems to be the starting point for more metabolic disorders such as hypertension or lipid disorders in children."

If children were metabolically healthy at the first measurement, then they would most likely continue to follow up (87 percent). Children who were considered overweight at the time of initial data collection developed several components of the metabolic syndrome in 19 percent of cases.

If children had multiple metabolic disorders, such as high blood pressure or elevated insulin levels, at the first measurement, they were very likely to maintain this throughout the study period.

The researchers are planning a renewed survey of the 12 to 22-year-old study participants this year. (eb)

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