Healthy Body Weight may Modify Effect of Abnormal Birth Weight on Metabolic Syndrome in Adolescents

Abstract

Objective This study aimed to examine the association between birth weight (BW) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in adolescents and to further investigate whether having a healthy body weight could modify the potential adverse influence of abnormal BW on MetS risk. Methods A total of 6,206 participants aged 10 to 17 years were recruited using data from a Chinese national survey conducted in 2012. Gestational age‐specific BW percentiles were used to classify small for gestational age (SGA), appropriate for gestational age, and large for gestational age (LGA). Fractional polynomial regression, logistic regression, and population‐attributable risk (PAR) were used to assess the relationship between BMI and BW with MetS. Results MetS risk increased by 73% (OR = 1.73, 95% CI: 1.06‐2.84) in SGA adolescents with overweight or obesity, but not in those without overweight, compared with their counterparts with BW appropriate for gestational age. A huge difference between PAR percent of MetS because of SGA and PAR percent because of overweight or obesity was detected. For example, PAR percent of SGA was 2.4% (95% CI: 0.1%‐4.6%) in adolescents with overweight or obesity, while PAR percent of overweight or obesity was 44.2% (95% CI: 33.3%‐53.2%) in those who were SGA infants. Conclusions These findings suggest that healthy body weight could relieve the adverse impact of SGA on MetS in adolescents.

The Combined Effect of Birth Weight and Lifestyle on Clustered Cardio-Metabolic Risk Factors in Children and Adolescents: A National School-Based Cross-Sectional Survey

“…Due to the limitation of LBW sample size, this association was not found in LBW/poor lifestyle. However, it could be seen that the association between LBW and clustered CMRFs was mainly due to its association with hypertension, and studies have shown that the effect of LBW on hypertension can be weakened by a healthy lifestyle [ 22 ]. Therefore, maintaining a healthy lifestyle among low-birth-weight children and adolescents might also help to reduce their adverse health effects in current and later life.…”

“…There is evidence that low birth weight (LBW) children are more likely to develop cardio-metabolic diseases such as obesity, hypertension, and insulin resistance [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ] while other studies have only found an association between LBW and hypertension [ 16 , 17 ]. Furthermore, studies have shown that high birth weight (HBW) mainly caused by maternal gestational diabetes may result in increased risk of hypertension, abdominal obesity, and insulin resistance during puberty [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ] while other studies have not observed such an association [ 22 , 23 ]. The potential impact of HBW on CMRFs in children and adolescents remains insufficient and controversial.…”

Association of large for gestational age with cardiovascular metabolic risks: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…All included studies evaluated the cardiometabolic health of individuals born LGA and AGA. Among them, 26 studies focused on BMI status categories, including overweight and obesity ; 21 studies reported glucose metabolism, including FBG, FIN, HOMA-IR, and T1D [14,20,22,24,26,30,32,34,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]; 17 studies assessed lipid profiles, including TC, TG, LDL, HDL, hypertriglyceridemia, and hypercholesterolemia [13, 14, 19, 22, 24, 26, 30, 32, 34-36, 38, 41, 42, 45, 49, 50]; and 14 studies reported BP, including systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and HBP [14,18,19,22,24,30,32,35,36,42,45,[50][51][52]. Of the 42 eligible articles, 25 were from Europe [11, 12, 17, 18, 20, 21, 24-28, 30-34, 36, 38-41, 43, 44, 46, 47, 50]; 8 were from North America [15,19,31,35,37,49,51,…”

The joint associations of high birth weight and not having siblings with metabolic obesity phenotype among school‐aged children and adolescents: A National Survey in China

“…Evidence from UK Biobank indicated non‐linear inverse associations between BW and CVD risk, with a threshold of 3.41–3.79 kg for the lowest risk 6 . However, Chinese scholars found that children with birth weights from 2500 to 2999 g had the lowest blood pressure (BP), 7 and J‐shaped relationships between BW and body mass index (BMI), 8 as well as null associations between high BW and cardio‐metabolic outcomes, 9 were also observed among Chinese children. Diversity of anthropometric indicators and disparities in the target populations and areas might together drive the discrepant results.…”