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Height, its components, and coagulability among older Chinese: the Guangzhou biobank cohort study
Insights
Childhood body proportions, like leg length and sitting height, are linked to blood viscosity and clotting factors in older adults. This suggests early life growth may influence cardiovascular health through blood coagulability.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Health
- Hematology
- Human Growth and Development
Background:
- Cardiovascular risk factors are being re-evaluated, with a renewed focus on Virchow's triad: hypercoagulability, endothelial function, and blood flow.
- The life course origins of blood coagulability are not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between childhood anthropometric measures and hematological parameters in older Chinese adults.
- To explore the life course origins of blood coagulability.
Main Methods:
- Multivariable linear regression analysis was employed.
- Data from 28,595 older Chinese adults (mean age 61.8 years) from the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study were analyzed.
- Childhood influences were proxied by height and its components (leg length, sitting height).
Main Results:
- Leg length was negatively associated with platelet count.
- Sitting height and overall height were positively associated with hematocrit (Hct) and hemoglobin (HGB).
- Both sitting height and overall height were negatively associated with platelet count.
Conclusions:
- This study provides novel anthropometric evidence linking prepubertal and pubertal growth influences to hematocrit and hemoglobin levels.
- The potential role of factors promoting leg growth over sitting height in preventing cardiovascular events via effects on hypercoagulability warrants further investigation.
Objectives:
The causal role of some cardiovascular risk factors, such as HDL cholesterol, has been increasingly challenged and attention is returning to all elements of Virchow's triad, i.e., hypercoagulability (including viscosity) as well as endothelial function and blood flow. We examined the life course origins of coagulability.
Methods:
We used multivariable linear regression to assess whether childhood influences, proxied by height and its components, were associated with hematocrit (Hct), hemoglobin (HGB), and other hematological parameters in 28,595 older Chinese adults (mean age = 61.8 years) from the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study.
Results:
Adjusted for age, sex, and recruitment phase, leg length was negatively associated with platelets (PLT) (-0.83 × 10(9) /l per centimeter (cm), 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.01 to -0.65). Sitting height and height were positively associated with Hct (0.05% per cm, 95% CI 0.04-0.07 for sitting height; 0.02% per cm, 95% CI 0.01-0.02 for height), HGB (0.21 g/l per cm, 95% CI 0.17-0.25; 0.07 g/l per cm, 95% CI 0.04-0.09) and negatively associated with PLT (-1.2 × 10(9) /l per cm, 95% CI -1.4 to -1.0; -0.83 × 10(9) /l per cm, 95% CI -0.95 to -0.70). Further adjustment for potential confounders did little to change the estimates.
Conclusions:
For the first time we provide anthropometric evidence for the different roles of prepubertal and pubertal influences in relation to Hct and HGB. Whether factors that promote leg growth but reduce growth of sitting height may help to prevent cardiovascular events, via effects on hypercoagulability or viscosity, overall or in specific subgroups, remains to be determined.
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