Which Amount of BMI-SDS Reduction Is Necessary to Improve Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Overweight Children?
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 19, 2026
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Thomas Reinehr1, Nina Lass1, Christina Toschke1
1Vestische Kinder- und Jugendklinik Datteln (T.R., N.L., C.T., J.R.), Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Nutrition Medicine, University of Witten-Herdecke, D-45711 Datteln, Germany; Institute for Epidemiology and Medical Biometry (S.L., R.W.H.), Zentralinstitut für Biomedizinische Technik, University of Ulm, D-89081 Ulm, Germany; and German Center for Diabetes Research (S.L., R.W.H.), D-85764 Neuherberg, Germany.
Insights
Weight loss in overweight children significantly improves cardiovascular risk factors. A reduction in BMI-SDS of 0.25 or more enhances blood pressure, triglycerides, and HDL-cholesterol, with greater benefits seen with a BMI-SDS reduction over 0.5.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Cardiology
- Endocrinology
Background:
- Overweight children face increased cardiovascular risk.
- Understanding the impact of weight loss on cardiovascular risk factors (CRFs) is crucial for management and treatment decisions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the body mass index (BMI)-SD score (SDS) reduction needed to improve CRFs in overweight children.
Main Methods:
- A prospective observational study involving 1388 overweight children over a 1-year lifestyle intervention.
- Measured changes in blood pressure, lipid profiles, glucose, and insulin resistance (HOMA).
- Weight status changes assessed by BMI-SDS.
Main Results:
- BMI-SDS reduction was linked to significant improvements in most CRFs, except fasting glucose and LDL-cholesterol.
- A BMI-SDS reduction of 0.25-0.5 improved BP, triglycerides, HOMA, and HDL-cholesterol.
- Greater BMI-SDS reduction (>0.5) led to more pronounced improvements.
Conclusions:
- A BMI-SDS reduction of 0.25 or more significantly improves hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, and low HDL-cholesterol.
- A BMI-SDS reduction exceeding 0.5 demonstrated a doubled effect on these CRFs.
- Lifestyle interventions targeting weight loss are effective in mitigating cardiovascular risks in overweight children.
Context:
Knowing the changes of cardiovascular risk factors (CRFs) in relation to weight loss would be helpful to advise overweight children and their parents and to decide whether drugs should be prescribed in addition to lifestyle intervention.
Objective:
The objective of the study was to determine the body mass index (BMI)-SD score (SDS) reduction to improve CRFs in overweight children.
Design:
This was a prospective observation study.
Setting:
The study was conducted at a specialized outpatient obesity clinic.
Patients:
A total of 1388 overweight children (mean BMI 27.9 ± 0.1 kg/m(2), mean age 11.4 ± 0.1 y, 43.8% male, 45.5% prepubertal) participated in the study.
Intervention:
The study included a 1-year lifestyle intervention.
Main Outcome Measures:
We studied changes of blood pressure (BP), fasting high-density lipoprotein- and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, and homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) of insulin resistance index. Change of weight status was determined by δBMI-SDS based on the recommended percentiles of the International Task Force of Obesity.
Results:
BMI-SDS change was associated with a significant improvement of all CRFs except fasting glucose and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol after adjusting for multiple confounders such as baseline CRFs, age, gender, BMI, pubertal stage, and its changes. BMI-SDS reduction of 0.25-0.5 was related to a decrease of systolic blood pressure (BP) (-3.2 ± 1.4 mm Hg), diastolic BP (-2.2 ± 1.1 mm Hg), triglycerides (-6.9 ± 5.8 mg/dL), HOMA (-0.5 ± 0.3), and triglyceride/high-density lipoprotein)-cholesterol (-0.3 ± 0.2), whereas high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol increased (+1.3 ± 1.2 mg/dL). A reduction of greater than 0.5 BMI-SDS led to more pronounced improvement (systolic BP -6.0± 1.3 mm Hg, diastolic BP -5.1 ± 1.3 mm Hg, triglycerides -16.4 ± 7.1 mg/dL, HDL-cholesterol +1.6 ± 1.5 mg/dL, HOMA -0.9 ± 0.3). Per 0.1 BMI-SDS reduction in systolic BP (-1.0 mm Hg), diastolic BP (-0.8 mm Hg), triglycerides (-2.3 mg/dL), HOMA (-0.2), and triglyceride/HDL-cholesterol (-0.5) decreased significantly, whereas HDL-cholesterol (0.2 mg/dL) increased significantly in linear regression analyses and accounted for multiple confounders.
Conclusions:
A BMI-SDS reduction of 0.25 or greater significantly improved hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, and low HDL-cholesterol, whereas a BMI-SDS greater than 0.5 doubled the effect.
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