Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Central obesity may be the cause of cardiometabolic disorders in adults. In children visceral adiposity is also associated with cardiometabolic risk factors. Waist circumference (WC) is a good surrogate marker of central adiposity, simple to measure. Paediatric studies indicate that within a particular Body mass Index (BMI) category, children with large WC have higher cardiovascular risk than those with smaller WC.

Aim: To examine the relationship between WC and family history (FH) of cardiovascular disease(CVD) in a group of overweight/obese (ov/ob) children and adolescents.

Methods: children/adolesccents aged 7–13 years (33 healthy controls matched for age and sex, 35 ov/ob) participated in the study. Anthropometry (weight, height, puberty staging, Body mass Index (BMI), WC) and physical examination were performed in all, FH of CVD taken.Statistical analysis was performed with IBM Statistics SPSS 20.0, the statistical significance was set at P<0.05.

Results: Positive CVD FH was noted in 15/35 ov/ob children/adolescents(65.2%), only in 8/33(34.8%) healthy controls. Significant effect of group was noted in WC, with WC mean value 93±14.6 cm in the ov/ob group, 62.7±9.5 cm in the control group respectively (P<0.001). Significant interaction was found between WC, CVD FH and group (P=0.022). In the ov/ob group statistically significant difference was noted between those with positive FH (98.7±16.8 cm) and negative (88.5±11.1 cm) respectively (P=0.015). Moreover, the ov/ob group differed significantly from the control group showing higher mean values in both negative (88.5±11.1 cm vs 63.8±9.6 cm, P<0.001) and positive CVD FH (98.7±16.8 cm vs 59.3±8.8 cm, P<0.001), Also, significant difference found in WC between ov/ob children/adolescents with positive CVD FH and those with negative (Mann-Whitney U=84, P=0.042). For those with positive FH the median WC value was increased (97 cm, 69.4–128.5) compared with those with negative (median WC 85.5 cm, 75–120), (table 1).

Conclusion: Increasing abdominal obesity is concerning in all European countries. In a recent greek study between children aged 6–12 years the WC mean values increased from 60.8±7.1 to 65.0±7.7 cm in a 2-year period. Preventive and treatment strategies are urgently needed to combat this obesity epidemic in all countries to reduce the associated CVD risk in adult life.