Obese children have raised CRP

Obese children as young as 3 years old have been found to have elevated levels of inflammatory markers, particularly CRP. The study of over 16,000 children aged one to 17 found that a CRP level of >1.0 mg/L was evident among very obese children from ages three to five years (hazard ratio 2.29; p<0.01) through to 15 to 17 years (HR 4.73; p<0.01). Increased risk of abnormal neutrophil count among very obese children began at six to eight years (HR 2.0; p=0.049), and increased prevalence of abnormal ferritin/transferrin ratio started at nine to 11 years (HR 7.06; p<0.001). The cross-sectional analysis categorised children participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey using weight for length when aged under two and body-mass index (BMI) for those two and over. Those in the fifth to <85th percentiles of BMI were considered at a healthy weight; those between the >85th and <95th percentiles were classified as overweight; those between >95th and <99th percentiles were obese; and those in >99th percentile as very obese. Future research needs to focus on the ability to use inflammatory markers to predict cardiovascular disease in children, the study authors said. “In this way, inflammatory markers could be used as a second layer of screening to determine who would most benefit from obesity interventions”. Additional research should also determine whether inflammation incites a cascade that over many years leads to cardiovascular damage and subsequent cardiovascular events and whether earlier exposure to inflammation causes cumulative damage, they said. “If such processes were confirmed, inflammation may transform the current epidemic of childhood obesity into a future epidemic of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in adults, further justifying early obesity prevention efforts”. Pediatrics 2010 published online before print....