With childhood obesity on the rise, researchers are digging deeper into how early excess weight shapes long-term health. A recent study suggests it is not just how much a child weighs, but where they carry that weight, that could signal their risk of heart disease as early as age 10.
The latest study presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity in Spain reveals that tracking waist-to-height ratio in children, a key marker of belly fat, could offer an early warning sign for heart and metabolic risks by the age of 10.
“With rapidly rising rates of childhood obesity worldwide, it is important to understand how central obesity during childhood is already linked to early signs of metabolic deterioration, including elevated blood pressure and circulating biomarkers associated with future cardiometabolic disease,” said lead author Dr David Horner in a news release.
To understand how body fat patterns in early life relate to heart health, researchers tapped into data from 700 children enrolled in the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood, a long-term study tracking children from birth. During 14 check-ins from just one week old to age 10, the team monitored key markers of cardiometabolic health, including HDL cholesterol, blood fats, glucose, insulin resistance, and blood pressure adjusted for height.
Based on changes in waist-to-height ratio, they identified three growth patterns: a stable “reference group” making up the majority, a group with waistlines that rose early before leveling off, and a “slow-rising” group that shows a steady increase over time.
The study found that children in the “slow-rising” waist-to-height group showed clear signs of poorer heart and metabolic health by age 10. Compared to their peers, they had significantly higher risk scores for both cardiometabolic and cardiovascular disease. These children also had higher blood pressure, lower levels of HDL or good cholesterol, signs of insulin resistance, and increased levels of inflammation, all linked to future risks of conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Compared to the reference group, children in the “rising then stabilizing” group showed a mixed health profile with lower levels of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), suggesting better blood sugar control, but slightly higher levels of apolipoprotein B (ApoB), a protein linked to increased cardiovascular risk.
When researchers factored in how much belly fat the children had at age 10, it became clear that this measure explained most of the differences in health risks between the groups.
“Our findings highlight that an elevated waist-to-height ratio at age 10 is a key clinical indicator of cardiometabolic risk in children. This reinforces the importance of monitoring central obesity in routine care, not only tracking weight, but specifically measures of central obesity as part of standard assessments,” Dr Horner said.
With childhood obesity on the rise, researchers are digging deeper into how early excess weight shapes long-term health. A recent study suggests it is not just how much a child weighs, but where they carry that weight, that could signal their risk of heart disease as early as age 10. The latest study presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity in Spain reveals that tracking waist-to-height ratio in children, a key marker of belly fat, could offer an early warning sign for heart and metabolic risks by the age of 10. “With rapidly rising rates of childhood obesity worldwide, it is important to understand how central obesity during childhood is already linked to early signs of metabolic deterioration, including elevated blood pressure and circulating biomarkers associated with future cardiometabolic disease,” said lead author Dr David Horner in a news release. To understand how body fat patterns in early life relate to heart health, researchers tapped into data from 700 children enrolled in the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood, a long-term study tracking children from birth. During 14 check-ins from just one week old to age 10, the team monitored key markers of cardiometabolic health, including HDL cholesterol, blood fats, glucose, insulin resistance, and blood pressure adjusted for height. Based on changes in waist-to-height ratio, they identified three growth patterns: a stable “reference group” making up the majority, a group with waistlines that rose early before leveling off, and a “slow-rising” group that shows a steady increase over time. The study found that children in the “slow-rising” waist-to-height group showed clear signs of poorer heart and metabolic health by age 10. Compared to their peers, they had significantly higher risk scores for both cardiometabolic and cardiovascular disease. These children also had higher blood pressure, lower levels of HDL or good cholesterol, signs of insulin resistance, and increased levels of inflammation, all linked to future risks of conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Compared to the reference group, children in the “rising then stabilizing” group showed a mixed health profile with lower levels of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), suggesting better blood sugar control, but slightly higher levels of apolipoprotein B (ApoB), a protein linked to increased cardiovascular risk. When researchers factored in how much belly fat the children had at age 10, it became clear that this measure explained most of the differences in health risks between the groups. “Our findings highlight that an elevated waist-to-height ratio at age 10 is a key clinical indicator of cardiometabolic risk in children. This reinforces the importance of monitoring central obesity in routine care, not only tracking weight, but specifically measures of central obesity as part of standard assessments,” Dr Horner said.
