Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Children from the Belgian Province of Luxembourg: The Belgian Luxembourg Child Study

Abstract

The Province of Luxembourg is an area in Belgium with a high prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus among adults. In the present study, children in the age groups 6-8, 8-10, and 10-12 years were selected at random from school classes (n = 1,028), with a participation rate of 70.3%. Anthropometric factors, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose, plasma cholesterol, triglyceride, and insulin levels were measured in 1992. All anthropometric and metabolic variables increased with age, except for waist: hip circumference ratio in boys and cholesterol in girls. In the oldest group, girls who had passed menarche were taller and heavier and had greater skinfold, body mass index, insulin, and systolic blood pressure values but lower total cholesterol levels and waist: hip ratios than girls who had not passed menarche. Boys had lower skinfolds and higher waist: hip ratios than girls in all age groups, and were significantly shorter and lighter in the oldest age group. There was no difference in body mass index between the two sexes. Girls had higher triglyceride and insulin levels in the 10- to 12-year age group, lower blood glucose values in the 8-10 and 10-12 age groups, and lower diastolic blood pressures in the 8-10 age group. Obesity, blood glucose, triglycerides, insulin, and blood pressure were highly interrelated. Cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin, and blood pressure values were all among the highest of values previously reported in other studies. The deciles of body mass index above 50 appeared to be particularly elevated, suggesting that obesity, when present, was pronounced in this population of children. These findings suggest an accumulation of genetic susceptibility to cardiovascular disease and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in this stable, ethnically homogeneous, and rather isolated part of continental Europe.

Insulin resistance syndrome in a representative sample of children and adolescents from Quebec, Canada

“…The expected prevalence of IRS2 if the criteria used to define it had clustered by chance alone would be 5.6%. Whatever mechanisms are underlying clustering of these metabolic risk factors, our data corroborate other reports [8][9][10][11][12] that they are operating at an early age. Trends in childhood IRS should be monitored because of their public health and clinical importance.…”

“…6 IRS has been reported in both adults and children. [7][8][9][10][11][12] Although IRS in paediatric populations may have a profound impact on the future burden of disease, there are no data on its prevalence in representative samples of North American or European youth. Thus, the primary objectives of this study were (i) to examine the association between IR, and adiposity, blood pressure (BP), plasma glucose and lipids, (ii) to assess the clustering of metabolic risk factors, and (iii) to estimate the prevalence of IRS in a representative sample of youth in the province of Quebec, Canada.…”

Cardiovascular stress responsivity, body mass and abdominal adiposity

“…Population studies of adults and children have demonstrated positive correlations between BP and both BMI and waisthip ratio. [33][34][35] The pattern of correlations in Table 3 indicates that the associations of BP with adiposity were underpinned by increased cardiac output, since correlations with total peripheral resistance were low or negative. A similar pattern has previously been described in comparisons of overweight and healthy weight adolescents.…”

Macronutrient energy intake and adiposity in non obese prepubertal children aged 5–11 y (the Fleurbaix Laventie Ville Santé Study)

“…Means of skinfold thicknesses in FLVS were similar to the 50th percentiles of the distributions for the same age range in healthy Dutch children, 27 and were slightly lower (0.5 ± 1 mm) than data in free-living children in Belgium. 28 The Netherlands and Belgium are two countries close to Fleurbaix and Laventie, which are in northern France.…”

“…No associations between STR or WHR and diet were observed, such as between WHR and cardiovascular risk factors in a former study. 28 This would indicate that, in prepubertal children, food intake has the same relationship with peripheral as with truncular fat.…”