Miami Herald - Obesity harms kids as young as 3, University of Miami study shows

A new national study by the University of Miami says obesity can create health risks in children as young as 3.

BY Fred Tasker
ftasker@MiamiHerald.com

Health problems caused by childhood obesity may begin as early as age 3 with the onset of risky cholesterol and artery inflammation levels that often portend heart disease, diabetes and other health problems in young adulthood.

The warnings are from a nationwide study of children 3 to 6 years old by the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

"People believe their children will outgrow their baby fat and that a chubby 2-year-old is healthy; it isn't true," said Sarah Messiah, a UM research assistant professor and lead author of the study.

"These children are experiencing a childhood at the edge of disease, potentially setting them up for chronic problems," she said.

The survey sharply lowers the age at which problems have been detected; most previous studies involved children 8 and older, she said.

Messiah urged parents to watch their child's weight even in preschool years. And she urged pediatricians to measure children's waist size and body mass at least by age 3, and preferably earlier.

Messiah's study was presented Wednesday at a conference of the American Heart Association in Palm Harbor near Tampa.

"This is important," said Dr. Stephen Daniels, chairman of pediatrics at the Children's Hospital at the University of Colorado in Denver, who has read the study but was not involved in it. "We've seen the severity of obesity going up in children for 10 or 15 years. This study shows that it's having an immediate effect on the health of those children."

Dr. Tracie Miller, professor of pediatrics and pediatric nutrition at the UM Medical School and one of the study's authors, said the study is unique because "it's a national sample of more than 3,000 kids, not just some kids from around Miami."

"For the first time, we're dealing with things we can measure, like body mass and waist size, and see how they correlate with risk factors for future disease," she said.

The study included more than 3,000 children 3 to 6 from a nationwide databank called the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, compiled from 1999 through 2004. It comes at a time when childhood obesity is soaring. Nearly 17 percent of U.S. children ages 2 to 19 are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control. It said obesity adds to the risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure and other diseases.

"People don't think children this young would already show risk factors for adult-onset diseases. Twenty years ago, we never saw teenagers with type 2 diabetes. Now there are a whole slew of them," Messiah said.

Reliable statistics don't exist for the number of children with type 2 diabetes, according to a 2008 report by the National Institutes of Health. But it said 25 percent of adults with diabetes are undiagnosed, so it recommended diabetes testing for overweight and other high-risk children.

Messiah's study measured the children's waist circumference and body mass index and compared them with their cholesterol levels and inflammation of the arteries, which are potent risk factors for future health problems. Body mass index (BMI), calculated from a person's weight and height, is a reliable indicator of body fatness, the CDC says.

Inflamed arteries are a precursor to the formation of plaque, which can build up and interfere with blood flow, she said.

It found that children with high BMI and large waist sizes are far more likely to have low levels of HDL, the "good" cholesterol, and high levels of artery inflammation, warning signs for future heart disease.

The study found sharp differences by race and ethnic group.

• High BMI and waist size predicted higher inflammation levels in all 5-year-old girls and in 6-year-old black and Hispanic boys.
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• High BMI and waist size predicted lower levels of HDL in 3-year-old Hispanic girls and 5-year-old Hispanic boys.

"Why is this? We don't know," Messiah said. "Is it genetics? Nutrition practices at home? We need to study this more."

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