Relation of Cardiometabolic Risk Factors between Parents and Children
Tanya Halvorsen1, Antoinette Moran1, David R Jacobs2
1Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN.
Insights
Parent and child cardiometabolic risk factors correlate, even after accounting for body mass index (BMI). Parental health profiles can identify children at risk, regardless of the child's adiposity.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Endocrinology
- Cardiovascular Health
- Obesity Research
Background:
- Cardiometabolic risk factors often track from childhood into adulthood.
- Understanding parent-child correlations in cardiometabolic health is crucial for early intervention.
- Adiposity plays a significant role in cardiometabolic health, but its influence on familial correlations needs further exploration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the associations between parent and child cardiometabolic risk factors.
- To determine the extent to which adiposity influences these parent-child correlations.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study of 179 parent-child pairs (children aged 6-18 years).
- Assessed adiposity, blood pressure, lipids, fasting insulin and glucose, and a composite risk score.
- Used Pearson correlation and adjusted linear regression, accounting for within-family correlations.
Main Results:
- Significant positive correlations found between parents and children for adiposity, blood pressure, lipids, insulin sensitivity, and composite risk scores.
- Most parent-child correlations remained significant after adjusting for body mass index (BMI).
- Systolic blood pressure correlation was the only one not significant after BMI adjustment.
Conclusions:
- Cardiometabolic risk factors show familial correlations independent of individual body mass index (BMI).
- Adverse parental cardiometabolic profiles can identify at-risk children, irrespective of the child's adiposity.
- These findings highlight the importance of family-based approaches to cardiometabolic risk management.
Objectives:
To explore the relations of parent-child cardiometabolic risk factors and assess the influence of adiposity on these associations.
Study Design:
Associations of adiposity, blood pressure (BP), lipids, fasting insulin and glucose, and a risk factor cluster score (CS) were evaluated in a cross-sectional study of 179 parents and their children (6-18 years, N = 255). Insulin resistance was assessed by euglycemic clamp in parents and children aged 10 years or older. Metabolic syndrome in parents was defined by National Cholesterol Education Program's Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. CSs of the risk factors were created based on age-specific z-scores. Analyses included Pearson correlation and linear regression, adjusted for parent and child age, sex, race, and body mass index (BMI), accounting for within-family correlation.
Results:
We found positive parent-child correlations for measures of adiposity (BMI, BMI percentile, waist, subcutaneous fat, and visceral fat; r = 0.22-0.34, all P ≤ .003), systolic BP (r = 0.20, P = .002), total cholesterol (r = 0.39, P < .001), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (r = 0.34, P < .001), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (r = 0.26, P < .001), triglycerides (r = 0.19, P = .01), and insulin sensitivity (r = 0.22, P = .02) as well as CSs (r = 0.15, P = .02). After adjustment for BMI all parent-child correlations, except systolic BP, remained significant.
Conclusions:
Although adiposity is strongly correlated between parents and children, many cardiometabolic risk factors correlate independent of parent and child BMI. Adverse parental cardiometabolic profiles may identify at-risk children independent of the child's adiposity status.
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