Associations between phenotypes of childhood and adolescent obesity and incident hypertension in young adulthood

Ruth G St Fleur¹, Marian Tanofsky-Kraff², Jack A Yanovski³, Nicholas J Horton⁴, Laura Reich⁵, Jorge E Chavarro^{6

7

8}, Joel N Hirschhorn^{9

10

11}, Hannah N Ziobrowski⁵, Alison E Field⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, RI, USA. sruthgaelle@gmail.com.
² Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, Uniformed Services University of The Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA.
³ Section on Growth and Obesity, Division of Intramural Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁴ Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology, Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, RI, USA.
⁶ Department of Nutrition, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
⁷ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
⁸ Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁹ Program in Medical and Population Genetics, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
¹¹ Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 39681621
DOI: 10.1038/s41366-024-01700-6

Associations between phenotypes of childhood and adolescent obesity and incident hypertension in young adulthood

Ruth G St Fleur et al. Int J Obes (Lond). 2025 Apr.

. 2025 Apr;49(4):715-722.

doi: 10.1038/s41366-024-01700-6. Epub 2024 Dec 16.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, RI, USA. sruthgaelle@gmail.com.
² Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, Uniformed Services University of The Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA.
³ Section on Growth and Obesity, Division of Intramural Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁴ Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology, Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, RI, USA.
⁶ Department of Nutrition, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
⁷ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
⁸ Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁹ Program in Medical and Population Genetics, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
¹¹ Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 39681621
DOI: 10.1038/s41366-024-01700-6

Abstract

Objectives: We investigated whether empirically derived childhood obesity phenotypes were differentially associated with risk of hypertension in young adulthood, and whether these associations differed by sex.

Methods: Data came from 11,404 participants in the Growing Up Today Study, a prospective cohort study in the US established in 1996. We used a childhood obesity phenotype variable that was previously empirically derived using latent class analysis. The childhood obesity phenotypes included an early puberty phenotype (females only), a mothers with obesity phenotype, a high weight concerns phenotype, and a mixed phenotype. Participants without overweight or obesity in childhood or adolescence were the reference group. We then used logistic regression models with generalized estimating equations to examine associations of childhood obesity phenotypes with incident hypertension between ages 20-35 years. All analyses were stratified by sex.

Results: Among females, participants in all of the empirically derived childhood obesity phenotypes were more likely than their peers without childhood overweight/obesity to develop hypertension in young adulthood (early puberty subtype odds ratio (OR) = 2.52; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.75, 3.62; mothers with obesity (MO) subtype OR = 2.98; 95% CI = 1.93, 4.59; high weight concerns (WC) subtype OR = 2.33; 95% CI = 1.65, 3.28; mixed subtype OR = 1.66; 95% CI = 1.25, 2.20). Among males, the childhood obesity phenotypes were associated with a higher risk of developing hypertension, although males in the MO (OR = 2.65; 95% CI = 1.82, 3.87) and WC phenotypes (OR = 3.52; 95% CI = 2.38, 5.20) had a greater risk of developing hypertension than the mixed subtype (OR = 1.51; 95% CI = 1.23, 1.86) (p = 0.004).

Conclusion: Risk for incident hypertension in young adulthood varied by childhood obesity phenotypes, as well as by biological sex. If replicated, these results may suggest that increased surveillance of specific childhood obesity phenotypes might help in targeting those at highest risk for hypertension.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: No financial disclosures relevant to this research study were reported by the authors of this paper. JAY reports grant support and/or provision of medications for unrelated trials of pharmacotherapies for obesity from Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Soleno Therapeutics, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, and Versanis Bio. The opinions and assertions expressed herein are those of the authors and are not to be construed as reflecting the views of the National Institutes of Health, USU, or the United States Department of Defense. Ethics approval and consent to participate: All methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations. Consent was obtained from the Internal Review Board at the Mass General Brigham (Protocol #2021P000093). All participants provided written informed consent.

Update of

Associations Between Phenotypes of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity and Incident Hypertension in Young Adulthood.
Fleur RS, Tanofsky-Kraff M, Yanovski J, Horton N, Reich L, Chavarro J, Hirschhorn J, Ziobrowski H, Field A. Fleur RS, et al. Res Sq [Preprint]. 2024 Mar 21:rs.3.rs-4113605. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4113605/v1. Res Sq. 2024. Update in: Int J Obes (Lond). 2025 Apr;49(4):715-722. doi: 10.1038/s41366-024-01700-6. PMID: 38562761 Free PMC article. Updated. Preprint.

References

1. Xie X, Atkins E, Lv J, Bennett A, Neal B, Ninomiya T, et al. Effects of intensive blood pressure lowering on cardiovascular and renal outcomes: updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2016;387:435–43. - DOI - PubMed
1. Olsen MH, Angell SY, Asma S, Boutouyrie P, Burger D, Chirinos JA, et al. A call to action and a lifecourse strategy to address the global burden of raised blood pressure on current and future generations: the Lancet Commission on hypertension. Lancet. 2016;388:2665–712. - DOI - PubMed
1. Kjeldsen SE. Hypertension and cardiovascular risk: general aspects. Pharmacol Res. 2018;129:95–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phrs.2017.11.003 . - DOI - PubMed
1. Kirkland EB, Heincelman M, Bishu KG, Schumann SO, Schreiner A, Axon RN, et al. Trends in healthcare expenditures among US adults with hypertension: national estimates, 2003–2014. J Am Heart Assoc. 2018;7:e008731. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.118.008731 . - DOI - PubMed - PMC
1. De Venecia T, Lu M, Figueredo VM. Hypertension in young adults. Postgrad Med. 2016;128:201–7. https://doi.org/10.1080/00325481.2016.1147927 . - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

Actions

MeSH terms

Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources
- Nature Publishing Group
Medical
- MedlinePlus Health Information

Save citation to file

Email citation

Add to Collections

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search

Create a file for external citation management software

Your RSS Feed

Associations between phenotypes of childhood and adolescent obesity and incident hypertension in young adulthood

Affiliations

Associations between phenotypes of childhood and adolescent obesity and incident hypertension in young adulthood

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Update of

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical