Children's belly "swim ring" promotes atherosclerosis! Qilu Medical College Research

With a better life, not only adults have "swim rings", but many children have also gained weight on their bellies.

A recent study conducted by Xi Bo and others from Qilu Medical College of Shandong University showed that abdominal obesity in children is very bad, and increased thickness of the carotid intima-media increases the risk.

The study showed that children with abdominal obesity had significantly thicker carotid intima-media thickness than children with normal waist circumference during the 2-year follow-up (0.54 mm vs 0.51 mm).

Moreover, among children with abdominal obesity, the detection rate of increased carotid intima-media thickness was 23.9%, while that of children with normal waist circumference was 3.9%.

Further analysis showed that abdominal obesity in children is a risk factor for increased carotid intima-media thickness, increasing the risk by 4.78 times compared with children with normal waist circumference.

Why does abdominal obesity in children increase the risk of increased carotid intima-media thickness?

The researchers speculate that excessive waist circumference is significantly correlated with inflammatory factors such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, which may mediate changes in vascular structure through inflammatory response; in addition, it may also affect the level of carotid intima-media thickness by affecting blood pressure, especially systolic blood pressure.

The researchers introduced that previous studies have shown that preventing abdominal obesity in adolescence can prevent the development of carotid atherosclerosis in adulthood.

These all suggest that early prevention and control of abnormal vascular structure in children should focus on children at high risk of abdominal obesity.

Recently, the American Heart Association issued a scientific statement on obesity and cardiovascular disease, pointing out that abdominal obesity marked by waist circumference is a risk marker for cardiovascular disease.

The most beneficial physical activity for reducing abdominal fat is aerobic exercise, while strength training is not as effective.

The data for this study came from the Huantai Children's Cardiovascular Health Follow-up Cohort. The researchers analyzed a total of 981 children, of whom the baseline age was 6 to 11 years old and the follow-up age was 8 to 13 years old, with boys accounting for 53%.

Increased carotid intima-media thickness was defined as carotid intima-media thickness ≥ the P90 cutoff value for the population's gender and age. Chinese and international waist circumference cutoff values ​​were used to determine abdominal obesity in children.

Source: China Circulation Magazine