DOC News February 1, 2005
Volume 2 Number 2 p. 23
© 2005 American Diabetes Association
Childhood Body Mass Index Linked to Cancer Risk
Overweight children have an increased risk of cancer in later life,
particularly smoking-related cancer, according to a historical cohort study of
2,347 people enrolled in the Boyd Orr Survey of Diet and Health in Pre-War
Britain.
Participants were between 2 and 14 years of age when baseline assessments
were performed in 1937–1939. Children had their height and weight
measured at 14 centers in England and Scotland. Researchers estimated cancer
risks in relation to age- and sex-specific body mass index (BMI) scores. Data
were converted to standard deviations (SDs), which express a measurement's
value in relation to the average for the child's age and sex.
Researchers examined records for all cancers, smoking-related cancers, and
certain site-specific cancers. Each SD of body mass in childhood conferred a
9% increase in cancer later in life. In the case of smoking-related cancers,
the risk increased 30% for each SD of BMI. Although total and smoking-related
cancers were increased in proportion to BMI, no other striking pattern in
site-specific cancer emerged, according to researchers. There were no
confounding influences from socioeconomic status, childhood energy intake,
birth order, or other variables studied.
"If the cancer risk among today's young people mimics that of
previous generations, our observations suggest that the impact of current
childhood obesity on the cancer burden in the second half of this century may
be substantial," the group concludes.
Jeffreys M, Smith GD, Martin RM, Frankel S, Gunnell D:
Childhood body mass index and later cancer risk: a 50-year follow-up of the
Boyd Orr study. Int J Cancer 112: 348–351, 2004.[Medline]
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