Commentary: The association between height growth and cholesterol levels during puberty: implications for adult health

cholesterol is an important risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). It is involved in the development of athero-sclerotic changes of the arterial wall, which have been shown to begin at an early age, even in apparently healthy children and adolescents. 1 Levels of cholesterol and other cardiovascular risk factors in childhood are also known to track into adult life and influence subsequent subclinical and clinical cardiovascular disease. 2 Studies of predictors of childhood cholesterol are therefore of importance for primary prevention and may help to identify those particularly susceptible to later hyperlipidaemia, athero-sclerosis, and cardiovascular disease at an early age. A paper in this issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology reports negative associations between height and total cholesterol in Japanese boys and girls around the time of puberty. 3 As well as cross-sectional associations the authors find that changes in height were negatively associated with concurrent changes in total cholesterol. An important question is what are the implications of these findings for later health? Short stature in adulthood has been consistently linked with increased CHD morbidity and mortality of CHD and also with unfavourable levels of CHD risk factors, including cholesterol. 4 Adult height is determined by genetic factors as well as early environmental influences on growth. Which particular period of growth may be crucial for the initiation and progression of cardiovascular disease remains to be determined. Few studies have considered the association between childhood growth and later cholesterol levels. A previous study in 1110 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY and Quetelet index with high and low density lipoprotein cholesterols in adolescent boys.density lipoprotein cholesterol levels at puberty in boys with delayed adolescence. Correlation with plasma testosterone levels. Basal growth hormone levels are positively correlated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in women.vascular risk factors improve during 3 years of growth hormone therapy in Prader-Willi syndrome. Longitudinal serum lipoprotein changes in white males during adolescence: the Bogalusa Heart Study. between change in height and changes in serum lipid and lipoprotein levels in adolescent males: the Bogalusa Heart Study. hypercholesterolemia and obesity; daily physical activity and dietary behavior of 10–11 years old children. elementary and junior high school children and their relationship to relative weight. cholesterol levels in school-aged Japanese children: the Hisayama study. total cholesterol, triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in Israeli Jewish children of different geographic-ethnic origins, ages 9–17 years. between anthropometric variables and lipid levels among school children: …