Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency and Physical and Mental Health until Adolescence.
BACKGROUND
To examine the association of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency with adolescent physical and mental health, as effects of G6PD deficiency on health are rarely reported.


METHODS
In a population-representative Chinese birth cohort: "Children of 1997" (n = 8,327), we estimated the adjusted associations of G6PD deficiency with growth using generalized estimating equations, with pubertal onset using interval censored regression, with hospitalization using Cox proportional hazards regression and with size, blood pressure, pubertal maturation and mental health using linear regression with multiple imputation and inverse probability weighting.


RESULTS
Among 5,520 screened adolescents (66% follow-up), 4.8% boys and 0.5% girls had G6PD deficiency. G6PD-deficiency was not associated with birth weight-for-gestational age or length/height gain into adolescence, but was associated with lower childhood body mass index (BMI) gain (-0.38 z-score, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.57, -0.20), adjusted for sex and parental education, and later onset of pubic hair development (time ratio = 1.029, 95% CI 1.007, 1.050). G6PD deficiency was not associated with blood pressure, height, BMI or mental health in adolescence, nor with serious infectious morbidity until adolescence.


CONCLUSIONS
G6PD deficient adolescents had broadly similar physical and mental health indicators, but transiently lower BMI gain and later pubic hair development, whose long-term implications warrant investigation.
School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
Man Ki
MK
Kwok
School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
Gabriel M
GM
Leung
School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.|City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, New York, New York, United States of America.
C Mary
CM
Schooling
D001724:Birth Weight / Q000502:physiology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005954:Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase / Q000378:metabolism*; D005955:Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D011627:Puberty / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012741:Sexual Maturation / Q000502:physiology
D005954:Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase