J Obes. 2026;2026(1):e3913006. doi: 10.1155/jobe/3913006.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Early-life exposures can increase the risk of both obesity and high blood pressure in adulthood. In this paper, we identify exposures across five pre-hypothesised childhood domains, explore them as predictors of obesity and high blood pressure comorbidity using the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS), and discuss these results in comparison to a similar approach using another birth cohort (1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)).
METHODS: The analytical sample included 9150 participants. The outcome was obesity (BMI of ≥ 30) and high blood pressure (blood pressure > 140/90 mm Hg) comorbidity at age 44. Domains included: 'prenatal, antenatal, neonatal and birth', 'developmental attributes and behaviour', 'education and academic ability', 'socioeconomic factors' and 'parental and family environment'. Stepwise backward elimination selected variables for inclusion for each domain, and predicted risk scores of obesity-high blood pressure for each cohort member within each domain were calculated. We performed multivariable logistic regression analysis including domain-specific risk scores, sex and ethnicity to assess how well the outcome could be predicted taking all domains into account. In additional analysis, we included potential adult factors.
RESULTS: Including all domain-specific risk scores, sex and ethnicity in the same prediction model the area under the curve was 0.70 (95% CI 0.67-0.72). The strongest domain predictor was the socioeconomic factors domain (OR 1.28 95% CI 1.19-1.38), similar to the BCS70 results. The parental and family environment domain was not a significant predictor (OR 1.08 95% CI 0.94-1.24) unlike the BCS70 results. After considering adult predictors, robust associations remained to the socioeconomic, education and academic abilities, development and behaviour, and prenatal, antenatal, neonatal and birth domains.
CONCLUSIONS: In the NCDS, some early-life course domains were significant predictors of obesity-high blood pressure comorbidity, supporting previous findings. Shared early-life characteristics could have a role in predicting obesity-high blood pressure comorbidity, particularly for those who faced socioeconomic disadvantage.
PMID:42927470 | DOI:10.1155/jobe/3913006