Childhood Obesity and Long-term Cardiometabolic Health

Childhood obesity represents a growing global public health challenge, with early excess adiposity exerting profound effects on lifelong cardiometabolic health. Excess body weight in early years often tracks into adulthood, fostering a milieu of insulin resistance, systemic inflammation and dysregulated lipid metabolism. These processes underpin the development of hypertension, type 2 diabetes and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease later in life. Evidence from longitudinal cohorts highlights that both the timing and duration of overweight exert independent influences on disease risk, with prolonged exposure to elevated body mass index (BMI) amplifying adverse outcomes. Mechanistic studies point to early-life metabolic programming, where nutritional and hormonal imbalances establish pathogenic trajectories. Interventional strategies that promote healthy weight trajectories—from infancy through adolescence—are therefore critical to attenuate the burden of chronic cardiometabolic disease across the lifespan.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent cohort analyses reveal that both deviations in birth weight and alterations in childhood body size are linked to a higher risk of developing multimorbidity in midlife. A U-shaped association with birth weight indicates that those born with low or high weight experience elevated hazards for multiple chronic conditions, while shifts towards being thinner or plumper by age 10 similarly increase long-term disease risk. These findings underscore the importance of maintaining a normal growth trajectory throughout early life to prevent the accumulation of cardiometabolic disorders in adulthood.

Childhood Obesity and Long-term Cardiometabolic Health publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in childhood obesity and long-term cardiometabolic health across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Body mass index (BMI): A standardised measure of weight relative to height (kg/m²) used to classify underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity.

Cardiometabolic health: The spectrum of interrelated cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors, including blood pressure, lipid profiles and glucose regulation.

Multimorbidity: The co-occurrence of two or more chronic health conditions within an individual.

Trajectory: The pattern of change in a health metric, such as BMI, over a specified period.

Dyslipidaemia: An abnormal concentration of lipids in the blood, often characterised by elevated LDL cholesterol, triglycerides or reduced HDL cholesterol.

References

1. Child-to-adult body size change and risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Diabetologia (2023).
2. Life‐course trajectories of body mass index and cardiovascular disease risks and health outcomes in adulthood: Systematic review and meta‐analysis. Obesity Reviews (2024).
3. Association of birth and childhood weight with risk of chronic diseases and multimorbidity in adulthood. Communications Medicine (2023).
4. Duration of obesity exposure between ages 10 and 40 years and its relationship with cardiometabolic disease risk factors: A cohort study. PLOS Medicine (2020).