Summary
Objective
To examine associations of hair cortisol concentration (HCC) in mid‐childhood and change in HCC from mid‐childhood to early adolescence (ΔHCC) with early adolescent adiposity and cardiometabolic biomarker measures.
Methods
In Project Viva, a pre‐birth cohort of mothers and children, we measured HCC in 599 white children in mid‐childhood and in 426 of these participants in early adolescence. We used multivariable linear regression to examine associations of mid‐childhood HCC and ΔHCC with BMI‐for‐age‐and‐sex z score, waist circumference, waist‐height ratio, dual X‐ray absorptiometry total and trunk fat mass, a metabolic risk z score, adiponectin, HOMA‐IR, high‐density lipoprotein, C‐reactive protein, interleukin‐6, leptin, and systolic blood pressure.
Results
Over a mean (SD) follow‐up of 5.2 (0.8) years, we did not find associations of mid‐childhood HCC with BMI‐for‐age‐and‐sex z score (β = 0.00 per 1‐interquartile range of HCC, 95% confidence interval [CI], −0.08 to 0.07), waist circumference (β = −0.04 cm, 95% CI, −0.83 to 0.74), metabolic risk z score (β = 0.04, 95% CI, −0.03 to 0.11), or other cardiometabolic measures except for an increase in log‐transformed HOMA‐IR (β = 0.10, 95% CI, 0.04‐0.17). ΔHCC was not associated with any outcome measures.
Conclusions
We found that mid‐childhood HCC was not associated with early adolescent adiposity or cardiometabolic biomarkers except for a slight increase in HOMA‐IR.