Childhood cardiovascular risk factors, a predictor of late adolescent overweight

BACKGROUND: We conducted a prospective study to elucidate the effects of increased cardiovascular risk factors on future weight gain and also the relation between body mass index (BMI) and other cardiovascular risk factors in children and adolescents. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted on 1525 nonobese children and adolescents with an age range of 3-16 years old, participating in the 1(st) phase and follow-up phases of Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study. The subjects were evaluated 4 times with a 3-year time interval regarding lipid profile status and BMI, and other cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. All the cases had a BMI <85% and had been appraised in at least two evaluation points. RESULTS: Cardiovascular risk factors, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (P = 0.019), low-density lipoprotein (P = 0.016), triglyceride (TG) (P < 0.001), and blood pressure (BP) (P = 0.001); had significant effects on weight gain. There was also no difference between boys and girls and no age trend for increasing weight in both groups. The associations between BMI with cardiovascular risk factors were assessed cross-sectionally. For both sexes, BMI was significantly correlated to systolic and diastolic BP and TG (P = 0.05). For girls, BMI was significantly related to HDL (P = 0.05) regardless to age, but in boys, the relation of BMI with HDL only increased with age (P = 0.05). CONCLUSION: Increased CVD risk factors are predictors of future overweight in childhood and adolescent and increased weight is linked significantly with dyslipidemia and hypertension in this age group.