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Updated: Oct 5, 2025
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Relationship between overweight and obesity and cardiac dimensions and function in a paediatric population
Juan Fernández Cabeza1, Cristhian H Aristizábal-Duque2, Isabel María Blancas Sánchez3
1Cardiology Department, Reina Sofia University Hospital, Maimonides Institute of Biomedical Research of Cordoba (IMIBIC), University of Cordoba, Av. Menendez Pidal, s/n, 14004, Cordoba, Spain. juanfca988@gmail.com.
Insights
Childhood obesity is linked to significant changes in heart structure and function, including enlarged chambers and increased mass. These findings highlight the importance of addressing pediatric obesity to prevent future cardiovascular issues.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Cardiology
- Cardiovascular Health
- Obesity Research
Background:
- Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic linked to cardiovascular risk factors.
- Pediatric overweight and obesity induce significant, though not yet pathological, changes in cardiac structure and function.
- These early alterations represent unfavorable incipient changes in children and adolescents.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between obesity and cardiac structure and function in the pediatric population.
- To assess how overweight and obesity affect heart chamber size, mass, and ejection fraction in children and adolescents.
Main Methods:
- A study was conducted in a southern Spanish village involving inhabitants aged 6-17 years.
- Transthoracic echocardiograms were performed to evaluate cardiac morphology and function.
- Participants were stratified by age and gender, with 212 children and adolescents included (48.1% males, mean age 10.9 years).
Main Results:
- Overweight and obese children (50% of participants) showed significantly larger left ventricular volumes and mass compared to normal-weight peers.
- Obesity was associated with a smaller ejection fraction and enlarged atria, aorta, and right ventricle.
- Elevated E/e' ratios indicated diastolic dysfunction, and body mass index was independently linked to cavity size and ejection fraction.
Conclusions:
- Childhood obesity is independently associated with larger heart chambers.
- Obesity in children correlates with greater left ventricle mass.
- Pediatric obesity leads to a smaller left ventricle ejection fraction.
Abstract:
Obesity in adults is associated with left ventricular hypertrophy, dilatation, and myocardial fibrosis, as well as heart failure and coronary heart disease. These associations have been studied to a lesser extent in the paediatric population. This study aims to investigate the relationship between obesity and cardiac structure and function in the paediatric population. In a southern Spanish village, we selected all inhabitants aged 6-17 years stratifying by age, gender, and educational centres. We performed a complete transthoracic echocardiogram evaluating all the cardiac morphological and functional parameters commonly measured in an echocardiographic study. There were 212 children and adolescents included. Of them, 48.1% were males. The mean age was 10.9 ± 3.0 years. A total of 106 (50%) were normal weight, 57 (26.9%) overweight, and 49 (23.1%) obese. Sex and age were similar in all three groups. Overweight and obesity were associated with larger left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes (p < 0.0005), greater left ventricular mass (p < 0.0005), and smaller ejection fraction (p < 0.0005). They were also associated with larger atrial, aortic, and right ventricular size. Lateral and mean E/e' ratios were higher (p = 0.007 and p = 0.01 respectively). Body mass index was independently associated with all cavity size variables as well as left ventricular ejection fraction.
Conclusion:
Childhood obesity is independently associated with larger heart chambers, greater left ventricle mass, and smaller left ventricle ejection fraction.
What Is Known:
• Childhood obesity is related to the development of cardiovascular risk factors and is considered an epidemic of the twenty-first century; its prevalence is rising.
What Is New:
• Childhood overweight and obesity lead to changes in cardiac structure and function which, although not considered clinically pathological, are significant and a result of obesity, and which behave as unfavourable incipient alterations at an early age.
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