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Obesity and fat patterns are important predictors of coronary heart disease risk. The relations of abdominal height (sagittal diameter) and various obesity measures to coronary heart disease risk factors were examined in a community-based sample of 409 Blacks and 1, 011 Whites aged 20–38 years in Bogalusa, Louisiana (1995–1996). Obesity measures used included weight, waist circumference, waist: hip ratio, waist: height ratio, abdominal height, triceps and subscapular skinfold thicknesses, body mass index, and conicity index. Abdominal height was highly correlated with other obesity measures, especially waist circumference (0.937–0.944, p < 0.001), and was least correlated with height. In multivariate analysis, abdominal height was an independent predictor of levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, very low density lipoprotein cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, glucose, and insulin and of systolic and diastolic blood pressures (p < 0.05 to p < 0.001), with total R2 values ranging from 0.13 to 0.52. Abdominal height contributed more to the prediction of blood pressure than did other measures of central obesity. In canonical analysis, abdominal height was correlated more strongly with the coronary disease risk factor variables as a group than were other obesity measures. These results suggest that abdominal height adds another dimension to measures of obesity in that it may help to assess a component of visceral fat that other measures miss. Am J Epidemiol 2000; 151: 885-91. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recently, independent factors representing different features of insulin resistance syndrome (Syndrome X) have been identified by factor analysis in middle-aged and elderly adult populations. In this study, factor analysis was applied to the clustering characteristics of Syndrome X in a biracial (Black-White) community-based population of 4,522 children (ages 5–11 years), adolescents (ages 12–17 years), and young adults (ages 18–38 years) from the Bogalusa Heart Study who were screened during 1988–1996. Ponderal index (weight (kg)/height (m)3), levels of insulin, glucose, triglycerides, and high density lipoprotein cholesterol, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure were used as measures of components of Syndrome X. No evidence was found to support a one-factor hypothesis for this syndrome, but factor analysis yielded two uncorrelated factors (factor 1: insulin/lipids/glucose/ponderal index; factor 2: insulin/blood pressure). These two factors explained 54.6% of the total variance in the entire sample. The factor loading patterns were very similar in all race and age groups, based on high values of coefficients of congruence (0.89–1.0). These results suggest that Syndrome X is chracterized by the linking of a metabolic entity (hyperinsulinemia/insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and obesity) to a hemodynamic factor (hypertension) through shared correlation with hyperinsulinemia/insulin resistance, and that the clustering features are independent of sex and age in both Black and White populations. Am J Epidemiol 1999; 150: 667–74. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The relation between birth weight and serum lipid concentrations at age 7 through 11 years was examined in a sample of 1, 411 black children and white children in Washington Pansh, Louisiana. Two data sets of the Bogalusa Heart Study were merged: 1) newborn cohort participants (n = 225) initially examined at birth, 1973–1974, and reexamined in 1984–1985 at age 9 through 11 years; and 2) subjects examined at ages 7 through 11 years in 1987–1988 (n = 1, 186) whose birth weight was collected from birth certificates in 1991. The prevalence ratios for being in the race-, sex-, and age-specific upper decile of serum lipid concentrations in children born with low birth weight (±2, 500 g) versus those with birth weight >2, 500 g were calculated per race-sex group. Among white boys with low birth weight, higher than expected percentages of subjects were in the highest decile group of tnglycende concentrations (0 01 ± p ± 0.05). The prevalence ratio was 2.42 (95% confidence interval 1.19–4.91). When premature infants were excluded, only for white girls was a greater than expected percentage of subjects with low birth weight found to be in the highest decile group of triglycende concentrations. The corresponding prevalence ratio for white girls was 3.23 (95% confidence interval 1.16–9.00). In analyses that either included or excluded premature infants, prevalence ratios for tnglycende concentrations in black boys and black girls and for the low density lipoprotein cholesterol/high density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio, total cholesterol concentration, and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration in all race-sex groups were not significantly different from one. To our knowledge, this is the first study finding associations between low birth weight and elevated triglycende concentrations in later childhood. A follow-up study among adufts is recommended. Am J Epidemiol 1997; 145: 398–407. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-insulin-dependent (type II) diabetes has a strong familial component. In 1989–1991, a community-based study of young Caucasian offspring (mean age, 15.3 years) of non-insulin-dependent (type II) diabetics (n = 25) and nondiabetics (n = 27) representing 13 and 12 families, respectively, was conducted in Bogalusa, Louisiana, to determine whether metabolic abnormalities could be detected in early life. All offspring were given a 1-hour oral glucose tolerance test. The offspring of diabetics (versus nondiabetics) had significantly increased measures of body fatness; blood pressure; and fasting levels of glucose, insulin, glucagon, insulin-to C-peptide ratio, and triglycerides. The increases of systolic blood pressure, glucose, and glucagon remained significant after adjustment for differences in body mass index (BMI). After glucose challenge, only plasma glucose response was significantly higher in the offspring of diabetics, even after controlling for differences in BMI. None of the offspring of nondiabetics had 30-minute (peak) glucose levels above 161 mg/dl (8.9 mmol/liter), compared with 41% of the offspring from diabetics. High glucose response and BMI were independently associated with parental diabetes. These results indicate that it is possible to identify multiple abnormalities in some offspring of type II diabetics at an early age that may presage the onset of overt adult diabetes. Am J Epidemiol 1996; 144: 962-7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]