Features of childhood growth, lifestyle and environment associated with a cardiometabolic risk score in young adults.

Introduction In young adults, the metabolic syndrome is rare. To better assess the risks for future cardiovascular disease, a cardiometabolic score can be used, ranking the disease risk in each subject. The score is a continuous variable summarising the individual z-scores for waist circumference, blood pressure, blood levels of glucose, triglycerides and HDL-cholesterol. Our main aim was to assess the association between early childhood growth and the cardiometabolic score in young adults. Methods Study participants were recruited among subjects in the longitudinal population-based GrowUp 1990 Gothenburg study. Those with information on weight and length at birth, as well as weight, height, waist circumference, and parental BMI at ten years of age were invited to participate in a health survey at 18-20 years of age. 513 young adults (female 51%) were included. Multivariable linear stepwise regression analysis was applied. Results The mean (SD) BMI was 22.2 (3.26) in males and 21.3 (2.69) kg/m² in females; the cardiometabolic score was 0.24 (3.12) and -0.22 (3.18), respectively. A statistically significantly higher score (p Conclusion A high BMI z-score at ten years of age is a risk factor for the cardiometabolic state in young adults, an outcome points to the preventive potential of monitoring BMI in ten-year-old schoolchildren. This finding must however be validated in a new large cohort. Moreover, in young adults in whom metabolic syndrome is rare, a cardiometabolic score seems to be a promising approach and potentially a more powerful tool to detect risks for cardiovascular disease later in life, than using metabolic syndrome categorisation.