Retarded tempo of physiological development in childhood delays the onset of the metabolic syndrome in adulthood.

Using serial data from the Fels Longitudinal Study, we investigated the effects of early and late attainment of the peak height velocity (PHV) in childhood on the timing of the appearance of the metabolic syndrome later in life. We aimed to show if early attainment of PHV engenders greater risks for chronic diseases in boys than in girls. Therefore, we defined those boys and girls in sex-specific quartiles of the study population that were slowest to attain PHV as having a slow tempo of development, and those in the growth that most rapidly attained PHV as having a rapid tempo of development. Boys who experienced an early onset of PHV tended to have a higher risk for the metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemia and impaired fasting glucose than those who had late onset of PHV. Girls who had an early onset of PHV tended to develop more abdominal obesity than females who had a late onset of PHV.