Study finds cardiovascular risk factors in children
R. PRASADPRE-PUBERTY AND HIGHER BODY FAT NOT CAUSAL FACTORS
RISK FACTORS ARE EASILY IDENTIF
School going children, who were earlier studied to find the risk of developing diabetes, have again been the subjects of a study to find the occurrence of cardiovascular risk factors. And it turned out that about 68 per cent of children do have certain cardiovascular abnormalities.
A study undertaken by Dr. A. Ramachandran, Managing Director of India Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai, where 2,640 children (1,323 boys and 1,317 girls) in the 12-19 age group were studied, found that 50 per cent of the children had insulin resistance. Insulin resistance was 85 per cent in the case of overweight children and 40 per cent in the case of normal children.
School children chosen for the study represented the low, middle and high socioeconomic groups.
The study, much like other studies done in the past, found that girls had higher insulin resistance compared with boys. It is known that the pre-pubertal period has a great influence on insulin resistance. Since children in the 12-19 years were the subjects of the study, the influence of this factor cannot be discounted. Insulin resistance decreases after girls achieve puberty.
Pre-pubertal period
“That does not explain the high insulin resistance in girls even though pre-pubertal period and its role in insulin resistance is well known,” Dr. Ramachandran noted.
Girls also had greater body fat compared with boys. Presence of body fat has a direct effect on insulin resistance. “Though girls had higher body fat, it cannot fully explain the higher insulin resistance,” he pointed out.
If pre-pubertal period and higher body fat cannot be the causal factors, what else could explain the higher insulin resistance? “It seems to be related very much to abdominal adiposity (waist circumference) and socioeconomic status,” he explained.
There is a clear increase in the waist circumference in children when the socioeconomic status is taken into consideration.
The most important finding of the study has been that cardiovascular risk factors (low HDL cholesterol, elevated triglycerides and higher blood pressure) that are generally considered to occur in adulthood appear as early as in teenage years.
That obese children have these risk factors is well known. But the study found that even normal children did have these risk factors. However, the number of children with normal BMI who had these risk factors was low compared with overweight children.
Whether the pre-pubertal period in the boys with normal BMI was the culprit cannot be said with surety as the pre-pubertal details were not available in the case of boys.
Less in adolescence
Insulin resistance was higher in children in the pre-pubertal period than in adolescent children. Would that mean that the higher insulin resistance seen in children (pre-pubertal period) is just a passing phase and nothing to get alarmed about?
“Insulin resistance even in adolescents was still higher than expected,” he noted.
The good news is that these risk factors are easily identifiable and the ailments preventable.
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