The impact of body weight trajectory from childhood on chronic inflammation in adulthood: The Bogalusa Heart Study

Importance:The impact of long-term burden of excessive body weight,beginning in childhood,on inflammatory status in adulthood has been poorly described.Objective:To characterize the longitudinal body mass index(BMI)trajectory from childhood and examine its relationship with inflammatory status in adulthood.Methods:We included 1285 adults who had 4-15 repeat measurements of BMI from childhood to adulthood.The area under the curve(AUC)of growth curves was calculated to characterize long-term burden(total AUC)and trends(incremental AUC)of BMI.Results:After adjusting for covariates,higher values of BMI in terms of childhood and adulthood,as well as total and incremental AUC,were strongly associated with elevated levels of adult C-reactive protein(CRP)in the four race-sex groups.There were significant differences in linear and nonlinear curve parameters between the normal and high CRP groups for all race-sex groups(P<0.01).Compared with participants who had consistently low BMI in both childhood and adulthood,participants with high BMI in adulthood had higher CRP levels(P<0.001),irrespective of their childhood BMI status;participants with high BMI in childhood but low BMI in adulthood had similar adult CRP levels.Interpretation:The impact of excessive body weight on inflammation is cumulative and exacerbated over time.The influence of childhood overweight/obesity on inflammatory status in adulthood can be alleviated by reducing adiposity in adulthood.