Health-Related Quality of Life in Overweight/Obese Children Compared With Children With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

PURPOSE: This study examined the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of pediatric patients with overweight/obesity compared with that of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. METHODS: Differences between disease groups in their PedsQL 4.0 HRQOL survey scores were analyzed using unpaired t tests and analyses of variance. RESULTS: Scores of patients with overweight/obesity were as low as scores of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Parent/guardian-proxy social functioning scores of the overweight/obese group were statistically significantly lower than scores of the inflammatory bowel disease group, and the parents/guardians reported significantly lower HRQOL scores than the patients. CONCLUSIONS: Overweight/obese children have HRQOL scores as impaired as those of children with inflammatory bowel disease. According to proxy-reported scores, overweight/obesity is associated with lower social functioning. Thus, it is important for health care providers to recognize obesity's relationship to patients' psychosocial health and provide holistic care that addresses the severity of this disease.

Maternal obesity associated with inflammation in their children.

BACKGROUND: This study explored the association between maternal obesity during pregnancy and the inflammatory markers, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6 and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and the cytokine, adiponectin, in the offspring. METHODS: Weight, height, Tanner stage and biomarkers were measured in thirty-four 12-year-old children, from the Infant Growth Study, who were divided into high risk (HR) and low risk (LR) groups based on maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI). RESULTS: The two groups differed markedly in their hs-CRP levels, but no group difference was found for the other three biomarkers. The odds ratio (OR) of HR children having detectable hs-CRP levels was 16 times greater than that of LR children after adjusting for confounding variables, including BMI z-score, Tanner stages and gender (OR: 16; 95% CI: 2-123). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that maternal obesity during pregnancy is associated with later development of elevated hs-CRP in the offspring, even after controlling for weight.

Cardiovascular disease risk factor (CVDRF) associated waist circumference patterns in obese-prone children.

OBJECTIVES: The present study tested whether children born at high risk (HR) compared with low risk (LR) for obesity are more likely to have a waist circumference (WC) associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors (CVDRF-WC) and tested whether CVDRF-WC status tracks over time. METHODS: This prospective cohort study involved 71 children, three to eight years, who were divided into two groups, LR (n = 37) and HR (n = 34), based upon maternal prepregnancy body mass index (BMI). HR subjects were subdivided into HR normal-weight (HRNW) and HR overweight (HROW) groups, based on BMI > or = 85%. Children were classified as having or not having a CVDRF-WC at each year, using age- and gender-specific WC cut-offs. Anthropometry was assessed annually. RESULTS: Although HR children had a significantly greater mean WC than LR children at years 5-8 (p < 0.03), these differences became non-significant after adjusting for BMI. HROW were more likely to have a CVDRF-WC status (p < or = 0.0001) at age 4 years (10%, 5%, vs. 58%), 5 years (3%, 10%, vs. 60%), 6 years (0%, 0%, vs. 70%), 7 years (0%, 0%, vs. 50%) to 8 years (0%, 0%, vs. 55%) than LR and HRNW. Although 60-100% of the children tracked CVDRF-WC status, higher proportions of HROW children (0-40%) transitioned into having a CVDRF-WC, compared with LR (0-6%) and HRNW (0-9%). CONCLUSIONS: HROW were more likely to have or develop a CVDRF-WC. Although the effects of obesity risk on WC may be secondary to BMI, clinically assessing WC in obese-prone children may help identify youth at risk for obesity-related complications.