title: The dangerous link between childhood and adulthood predictors of obesity and metabolic syndrome.
abstract: The purpose of this review is to evaluate whether some risk factors in childhood work as significant predictors of the development of obesity and the metabolic syndrome in adulthood. These factors include exposures to risk factors in the prenatal period, infancy and early childhood, as well as other socio-demographic variables. We searched articles of interest in PubMed using the following terms: 'predictors AND obesity OR Metabolic syndrome AND (children OR adolescents) AND (dyslipidemia OR type 2 diabetes OR atherosclerosis OR hypertension OR hypercholesterolemia OR cardiovascular disease)' AND genetic OR epigenetic. Maternal age, smoking and weight gain during pregnancy, parental body mass index, birth weight, childhood growth patterns (early rapid growth and early adiposity rebound), childhood obesity and the parents' employment have a role in early life. Furthermore, urbanization, unhealthy diets, increasingly sedentary lifestyles and genetic/epigenetic variants play a role in the persistence of obesity in adulthood. Health promotion programs/agencies should consider these factors as reasonable targets to reduce the risk of adult obesity. Moreover, it should be a clinical priority to correctly identify obese children who are already affected by metabolic comorbidities.
authors.affiliation: Section of Pediatrics, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, University of Bari "A. Moro", Bari, Italy. mariafelicia.faienza@uniba.it.
authors.forename: Maria Felicia
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Faienza
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, 63104, USA.
authors.forename: David Q H
authors.initials: DQ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Metabolic Research Laboratory, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.|Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.|CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029, Madrid, Spain.|Obesity and Adipobiology Group, Instituto de Investigación Sanitario de Navarra (IdiSNA), Pamplona, Spain.
authors.forename: Gema
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Frühbeck
authors.affiliation: Section of Endocrinology, Andrology and Metabolic Diseases, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplants, University of Bari Medical School, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Garruti
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, Clinica Medica "A. Murri", University of Bari "A. Moro", Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Piero
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Portincasa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000209:etiology*; D009765:Obesity / Q000209:etiology*; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: Childhood; Metabolic syndrome; Obesity; Predictors