Early weight correction may protect against heart disease, study suggests

Children who are overweight face a higher risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD) in adulthood, but research from Sweden indicates that correcting weight before early adulthood may eliminate this elevated risk. Notably, those who first become overweight during puberty appear to have an even greater long-term risk than children who remain consistently overweight from an early age.

The population-based cohort study, carried out in Gothenburg, examined whether resolving childhood overweight before young adulthood could reduce the likelihood of CHD later in life. The research team analysed data from 103,232 individuals born between 1945 and 1968. Participants, whose average childhood BMI was 15.6 and of whom 44.5 per cent were women were followed from the age of 22 for an average of nearly 38 years,.

Childhood overweight and obesity were defined using International Obesity Task Force thresholds. In young adulthood, overweight was classified as a BMI of 25 to under 30, and obesity as a BMI of 30 or above. The researchers tracked the first occurrence of both fatal and non-fatal CHD events.

The findings showed that childhood overweight was associated with a modestly increased risk of CHD in adulthood (hazard ratio 1.15), while overweight in young adulthood had a markedly stronger association (hazard ratio 1.71). However, individuals who returned to a normal weight before reaching young adulthood had a similar risk to those who had maintained a healthy weight throughout childhood (hazard ratio 0.98).

The study further revealed that participants who became overweight during puberty had an 83 per cent higher risk of CHD than those who had maintained a normal weight, while those with persistent overweight from childhood had a 53 per cent higher risk. Pubertal-onset overweight was also linked to a 23 per cent higher CHD risk compared with persistent childhood overweight.

“Public health efforts aiming to prevent CHD in adults should include preventive measures in early life, as well as early treatment of childhood and pubertal overweight.”