Fasting levels of serum glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride at age eleven to twelve years in stunted and non‐stunted Jamaican children

Abstract

Aim: To determine whether fasting serum concentrations of glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride at age 11–12 y (a) differed between children stunted in early childhood and those who were never stunted, (b) were related to birthweight or current anthropometry and (c) were related to stunting after controlling for current size. Methods: Anthropometry, serum glucose and lipid concentrations were measured in 112 children stunted in early childhood and 181 non‐stunted children. Results: Children who were stunted in infancy remained shorter, weighed less and were significantly less fat than non‐stunted children but had a more central distribution of fat. They were also less likely to have entered puberty. Non‐stunted children had higher fasting serum triglyceride concentrations than stunted children (p > 0.05). There were no significant correlations between birthweight and fasting glucose or any measure of serum lipids. The percentage of variance in biochemical measures explained by anthropometry was low: between 2.1 for HDL cholesterol and 14.6 for triglyceride. Nutritional status in early childhood (stunted or non‐stunted) made no additional contribution to the variance. Conclusions: Linear growth retardation in early childhood was not independently related to fasting serum concentrations of glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride at age 11–12 y. However, despite being thinner, stunted children had a more central distribution of fat.

Adult lipids associated with early life growth in traditional melanesian societies undergoing rapid modernization: A longitudinal study of the mid‐20th century

“…Greater increases in weight for height or subscapular skinfold are associated with higher outcome TC among 0-5 year old boys and all three cohorts of girls, with greater increases in TC among 6-11 and 12-19 year old girls, and with higher triglycerides among 6-11 and 12-19 year old boys and 12-19 year old girls. Our results are generally in accord with those studies that report weight gain in infancy or childhood is associated with higher outcome triglycerides (Donker et al, 1997;Bavdekar et al, 1999;Bennett et al, 2002;Dwyer et al, 2002;Parker et al, 2003;Fagerberg et al, 2004;Kajantie et al, 2008;Sayers et al, 2009) and higher outcome TC (Bavdekar et al, 1999;Bennett et al, 2002;Dwyer et al, 2002;Kuzawa and Adair 2003;Owen et al, 2003;Skidmore et al, 2007;Horta et al, 2009;Tzoulaki et al, 2010). Once again, however, not all studies follow this pattern.…”

“…This is not atypical as other studies also have reported contradictory associations. While some have shown a negative correlation between stature growth and outcome TC, similar to our results (Cianfarani et al, 2003;Skidmore et al, 2007;Kajantie et al, 2008), others have reported a positive association (Tenhola et al, 2000;Miura et al, 2001), and still others could find no significant association (Bennett et al, 2002). While we found no significant relation between initial stature and outcome TC among the youngest children, others have found that shorter height among children between 4 and 11 years was associated with higher TC at age 20 (Skidmore et al, 2004), that stature at 8 years was positively related to TC (Bavdekar et al, 1999), or that stature at age 20 was positively associated with TC (Miura et al, 2001), as in our study.…”

“…Without data on birth weights, we cannot claim these results clearly support either the "fetal origins" hypothesis (presuming that children with the higher initial measures of body fat were small at birth) or the "growth acceleration" hypothesis (presuming that these children had the greatest increases in fat between birth and initial measurement). Nevertheless, these results are like others that link higher outcome TC and/or triglycerides with higher measures of body fat during childhood (Bennett et al, 2002;Dwyer et al, 2002) and adolescence (Owen et al, 2003), and with higher childhood weight (Sayers et al, 2009), although higher outcome TC also has been associated with lower BMI during infancy (Skidmore et al, 2007).…”

“…However, evidence for an association between low birth weight and adult dyslipidemias is inconsistent (Laur en et al, 2003;Huxley et al, 2004), as is evidence for an association between post-natal growth acceleration and outcome lipids (Bavdekar et al, 1999;Tenhola et al, 2000;Miura et al, 2001;Bennett et al, 2002;Eriksson et al, 2002;Cianfarani et al, 2003;Parker et al, 2003;Fagerberg et al, 2004;Finken et al, 2006;Skidmore et al, 2007;Kajantie et al, 2008;Torre et al, 2008;Horta et al, 2009;Tzoulaki et al, 2010). Differences in subject ages and socioeconomic statuses across these studies (Parker et al, 2003) probably contributed to their variable results, but are likely to be responsible for only some of the inconsistencies.…”

Fasting plasma glucose levels in healthy preschool children: effects of weight and lifestyle

“…In summary, a modern lifestyle with excessive energy intake and insufficient physical activity causes weight increase and obesity, which may influence insulin sensitivity in preschool children. Nonetheless, we do not see any effect on fasting plasma glucose levels, which have remained constant in healthy children for more than 25 years (16–21).…”