Abstract
BackgroundAdult cholesterol concentrations might be influenced by early-life factors, such as breastfeeding and birth weight, referred to as “early programming”. How such early factors exert their influence over the life course is still poorly understood. Evidence from studies in children and adolescents is scarce and conflicting. We investigated the influence of 6 different perinatal risk factors on childhood total and HDL cholesterol concentrations and total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio measured at 8 years of age, and additionally we studied the role of the child's current Body Mass Index (BMI).MethodsAnthropometric measures and blood plasma samples were collected during a medical examination in 751 8-year-old children participating in the prospective Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy (PIAMA) birth cohort study. Linear and logistic regression were performed to estimate associations of total and HDL cholesterol concentrations with breastfeeding, birth weight, infant weight gain, maternal overweight before pregnancy, gestational diabetes and maternal smoking during pregnancy, taking into account the child's current BMI.ResultsLinear regressions showed an association between total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio and maternal pre-pregnancy overweight (β = 0.15, Confidence Interval 95% (CI): 0.02, 0.28), rapid infant weight gain (β = 0.13, 95%CI: 0.01, 0.26), and maternal smoking during pregnancy (β = 0.14, 95%CI: 0.00, 0.29). These associations were partly mediated by the child's BMI.ConclusionTotal-to-HDL cholesterol ratio in 8-year-old children was positively associated with maternal pre-pregnancy overweight, maternal smoking during pregnancy and rapid infant weight gain.
Highlights
The risk of developing chronic disease later in life may be associated with prenatal and early postnatal factors, referred to as ‘‘early programming’’ [1]
Higher total [12] and lower high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentrations [13] were observed in low birth weight children, but this was not observed in two other studies [14,15]
We considered the joint effects of these early-life risk factors together with maternal smoking during pregnancy and maternal pre-pregnancy overweight, on childhood total and HDL cholesterol concentrations and total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio in a prospective study
Summary
The risk of developing chronic disease later in life may be associated with prenatal and early postnatal factors, referred to as ‘‘early programming’’ [1]. In a review Owen et al [3] concluded that breastfeeding was associated with lower cholesterol concentrations in adulthood (age 17–79 years), whereas low birth weight has been associated with increased cholesterol concentrations measured at ages 17 to 76 years [4,5,6,7,8,9]. It is of major interest whether childhood cholesterol concentrations are associated with factors early in life, both from a public health perspective and for our understanding of the expression of early programming throughout the life course. We investigated the influence of 6 different perinatal risk factors on childhood total and HDL cholesterol concentrations and total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio measured at 8 years of age, and we studied the role of the child’s current Body Mass Index (BMI)
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