Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Foundation for Research in Nutrition and Health, Bogotá, Colombia.
Pediatr Obes. 2022 Apr;17(4):e12868. doi: 10.1111/ijpo.12868. Epub 2021 Nov 10.
Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is associated with obesity and may be involved in its aetiology, but few studies have focused on children and most have been cross-sectional. We assessed the relation of LTL with adiposity development in a prospective study of Colombian children. We quantified LTL at enrollment in 722 children aged 5-12 years and measured anthropometry annually for a median 6 years. Using mixed effects models, we estimated changes in adiposity measures including BMI and waist circumference (WC)-for-age z-scores in relation to baseline LTL z-score. In girls, longer LTL was linearly related to a lower increase in WC z-score from age 6 to 16 years. Every 1 SD LTL was associated with an adjusted 0.13 units lower increase in WC (95% CI: -0.23, -0.03; p = 0.01). In conclusion, longer LTL among girls in middle childhood is associated with smaller increases in WC, an indicator of abdominal adiposity.
白细胞端粒长度（LTL）与肥胖有关，可能与其病因有关，但很少有研究关注儿童，而且大多数研究都是横断面研究。我们在一项对哥伦比亚儿童的前瞻性研究中评估了 LTL 与肥胖发展的关系。我们在 722 名 5-12 岁的儿童入组时测量了 LTL，并在中位数 6 年的时间内每年测量一次人体测量学指标。使用混合效应模型，我们估计了与基线 LTL 得分相关的肥胖指标（包括 BMI 和腰围（WC）-年龄 z 评分）的变化。在女孩中，LTL 较长与 WC z 评分从 6 岁到 16 岁的较低增长呈线性相关。LTL 每增加 1 个标准差，与 WC 增加量调整后减少 0.13 个单位（95%CI：-0.23，-0.03；p=0.01）相关。总之，女孩在童年中期的 LTL 较长与 WC 的增加较小有关，WC 是腹部肥胖的一个指标。
