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Metabolic risk in contemporary children is unrelated to socio‐economic status: longitudinal study of a UK urban population (EarlyBird 42)
Author(s) -
Voss Linda D,
Hosking Joanne,
Metcalf Brad S,
Jeffery Alison N,
Frémeaux Alissa E,
Wilkin Terence J
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
pediatric diabetes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.678
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1399-5448
pISSN - 1399-543X
DOI - 10.1111/pedi.634
Subject(s) - medicine , environmental health , longitudinal study , population , demography , socioeconomic status , pediatrics , sociology , pathology
Lifestyle interventions to improve health in young children tend to target areas of relative deprivation, but the evidence for so doing is largely historical. Accordingly, we have re‐examined the link between deprivation, obesity and metabolic risk in contemporary UK children. Using a postcode‐based index of multiple deprivation (IMD), we assessed 269 children from the community‐based EarlyBird Study, attending 53 schools representing a wide socio‐economic range. Annual measures of fatness from 5 to 8 yr included body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and sum of five skinfolds (SSF). A metabolic risk score, based on blood pressure, lipids and insulin resistance, was derived from annual fasting blood samples. There were no significant associations between deprivation and any measure of adiposity in girls (all p > 0.37). In boys, there was a weak but consistently inverse relationship between deprivation and WC (r = −0.19, p = 0.03) and BMI (r = −0.14, p = 0.09) at 8 yr. Changes in adiposity over 3 yr were unrelated to deprivation in boys. In girls there was a slight but significant increase in SSF only (1 mm/yr per 20 IMD units, p = 0.001). Importantly, in both genders, metabolic risk score was unrelated to deprivation throughout (r values −0.05 to −0.13, all p > 0.12), as was change in metabolic risk (all p > 0.30). Our data do not support the assumption that obesity, metabolic disturbance and thus risk of type 2 diabetes are more prevalent among poorer children. In today's increasingly obesogenic environment, youngsters from all backgrounds appear to be vulnerable, with population‐wide implications for public health spending, and the prevention of diabetes in contemporary youth.