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Foetal nutritional status and cardiovascular risk profile among children

Jian Liu1, Christopher Sempos

  • 1Department of Community Health Sciences, AS 309, Brock University, 500 Glenridge Avenue, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, L2S 3A1. jliu@brocku.ca

Public Health Nutrition
|March 27, 2007
PubMed

Insights

The Foetal Nutritional Status Index (FNSI) may predict future cardiovascular risk in children. Lower FNSI scores were linked to increased risk factors in males, while females showed higher risks at both low and high FNSI scores.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric cardiovascular health
  • Maternal-fetal medicine
  • Nutritional epidemiology

Background:

  • Fetal nutritional status is increasingly recognized as a determinant of long-term health.
  • Cardiovascular disease risk factors often emerge in childhood.
  • A novel index, the Foetal Nutritional Status Index (FNSI), was developed to assess fetal nutrition.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the association between the Foetal Nutritional Status Index (FNSI) and cardiovascular risk factors in children.
  • To determine if fetal nutritional status, as indicated by FNSI, influences childhood cardiovascular health outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-sectional analysis of 3109 children aged 5-11 years from the US Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
  • The Foetal Nutritional Status Index (FNSI) was calculated using child's birth weight (BW) divided by mother's height (m²).
  • Multivariate logistic regression adjusted for confounding variables to assess cardiovascular risk factors.

Main Results:

  • The FNSI showed a positive association with birth weight and a negative association with maternal height.
  • For males, lower FNSI quintiles were associated with increased cardiovascular risk factors, including low HDL cholesterol and a cluster of risk factors.
  • Females in the lowest and highest FNSI quintiles exhibited a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and central obesity.

Conclusions:

  • The FNSI may serve as a valuable proxy for fetal nutritional status.
  • This index can be utilized to investigate the long-term cardiovascular implications of fetal nutrition, including restriction and overnutrition.
Abstract

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