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Updated: Jul 8, 2025

Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
09:36

Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study

Published on: February 2, 2017

27.1K

Childhood overweight and obesity: age stratification contributes to the differences in metabolic characteristics

Jinxia Wu1, Zhenchang Li1, Hongwei Zhu2

  • 1Department of Electronic Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Plasma and Magnetic Resonance, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.

Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.)
|December 19, 2023
PubMed

Insights

This study identified distinct metabolic profiles in overweight and obese children, revealing age-related differences and key biomarkers like phenylalanine and tyrosine. These findings advance understanding of childhood obesity mechanisms.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Endocrinology
  • Metabolomics
  • Biochemistry

Background:

  • Childhood overweight and obesity are significant public health concerns.
  • Understanding the underlying metabolic alterations is crucial for effective interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify differential metabolic characteristics in children with overweight and obesity.
  • To explore potential mechanisms across different age groups (>4 years and ≤4 years).

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a 1D proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) based metabolomics approach.
  • Employed pattern recognition methods for data analysis.
  • Recruited 473 children stratified by age and BMI percentile.

Main Results:

  • Identified numerous potential biomarkers for overweight and obesity, varying by age group.
  • Observed co-occurring fluctuations in phenylalanine, tyrosine, glutamine, leucine, histidine, and ascorbate in obese children.
  • Highlighted disturbances in amino acid biosynthesis, lipid metabolism, and galactose metabolism.

Conclusions:

  • Metabolic disturbances progress significantly from overweight to obesity in children.
  • Distinct metabolic profiles were observed between younger and older children.
  • Specific metabolite changes, including phenylalanine and tyrosine, are linked to persistent childhood obesity.
Abstract

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