Early life programming of abdominal adiposity in adolescents; The HELENA study
- Idoia Labayen, PhD (idoia.labayen{at}ehu.es)1,
- Jonatan R Ruiz, PhD2,
- Germán Vicente-Rodríguez, PhD3,4,
- Dominique Turck, MD5,
- Gerardo Rodríguez, MD3,6,
- Aline Meirhaeghe, PhD7,
- Denes Molnár, PhD8,
- Michael Sjöström, MD2,
- Manuel J Castillo, MD9,
- Frederic Gottrand, MD5 and
- Luis A Moreno, MD3
- 1Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of the Basque Country, 01006 Vitoria, Spain
- 2Unit for Preventive Nutrition, Dep. of Biosciences and Nutrition at NOVUM, Karolinska Institutet, SE-17177 Huddinge, Sweden
- 3GENUD “Growth; Exercise, Nutrition and Development” research group. University School of Health Sciences, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza (Spain)
- 4Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, Department of Physiotherapy and Nursing, University of Zaragoza, Plaza Universidad 3, 22002 Huesca, Spain
- 5 EA 3925, IFR 114, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lille 2 and Department of Pediatrics, Jeanne de Flandre Children's University Hospital, Lille, France
- 6Department of Pediatrics, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza. Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud. Spain
- 7INSERM, U744; Institut Pasteur de Lille; UDSL; Lille, F-59000, France
- 8Department of Pediatrics, University of Pecs, H-7623, Pécs-József A 7, Hungary
- 9Department of Medical Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, 18014 Granada, Spain
Abstract
Aim: To examine the relationship between birth weight (BW) and abdominal adiposity in adolescents.
Research Design and Methods: A total of 284 adolescents (49.3% females) aged 14.9±1.2 years were included in the study. BW and gestational age were obtained from parental records. Abdominal adiposity (in three regions: R1, R2, and R3), trunk and total body fat mass (FM) were measured by DXA. Regional FM indexes (FMI=FM/height2) were thereafter calculated (Trunk FMI and abdominal FMI R1, R2, and R3).
Results: BW was negatively associated with abdominal FMI R1, R2 and R3 independently of total FM, gestational age, gender, breastfeeding duration, pubertal stage, physical activity and socioeconomic status (all P<0.01).
Conclusions: Our study shows an inverse association between BW and abdominal adiposity in adolescents, independently of total FM and other potential confounders. These findings suggest that fetal nutrition, as reflected by BW, may have a programming effect on abdominal adiposity later in life.
Footnotes
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- Received May 30, 2009.
- Accepted July 15, 2009.
- Copyright © American Diabetes Association
