Association of Body Mass Index and Obesity Measured in Early Childhood With Risk of Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke in Middle Age: Findings From the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s Prospective Cohort Study

DA Lawlor, DA Leon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

99 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background There is concern that the childhood epidemic of obesity will result in increases in the risk of cardiovascular disease in the future; however, there is currently little direct evidence on this issue. Methods and Results We assessed the association of body mass index, measured when subjects were a mean age of 4.9 years old, with the future risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke in a large Scottish birth cohort (born in the 1950s) who have been linked to hospital admissions and mortality data. At the start of the follow-up period (1981), there were 11 106 (91%) members of the cohort alive and believed to be resident in Scotland. Over the follow-up period, they contributed 245 000 person-years of risk. Among these subjects, there were 302 (53 fatal) cases of CHD, 109 (4 fatal) cases of stroke, and 397 (57 fatal) cases of either a CHD or stroke. There was no association between childhood body mass index and CHD risk. There was no linear association between childhood body mass index and stroke risk, but those who were obese in childhood (top 2.5% of the body mass index distribution) compared with all others had an increased risk of stroke; the adjusted (for gender, fathers occupational social class at birth, number of siblings, and birth weight) hazards ratio was 2.41 (95% CI 1.00 to 5.86). Conclusions Body mass index in early childhood does not appear to be associated with increased CHD risk in later life.
Translated title of the contributionAssociation of Body Mass Index and Obesity Measured in Early Childhood With Risk of Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke in Middle Age: Findings From the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s Prospective Cohort Study
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1891 - 1896
Number of pages6
JournalCirculation
Volume111 (15)
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2005

Bibliographical note

Publisher: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins

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