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Objective: Evidence linking early-life adversity with an adverse cardiometabolic profile in adulthood is equivocal. This study investigates early-life adversity in relation to weight and cardiometabolic health status at ages 60 to 64 years., Methods: We included 1059 individuals from the 1946 National Survey of Health and Development. Data on adversity between ages 0 to 15 years were used to create a cumulative childhood psychosocial adversity score and a socioeconomic adversity score. Cardiometabolic and weight/height data collected at ages 60 to 64 years were used to create four groups: metabolically healthy normal weight, metabolically unhealthy normal weight, metabolically healthy overweight/obese, and metabolically unhealthy overweight/obese. Associations between the two exposure scores and weight/health status were examined using multinomial logistic regression, with adjustment for sex and age at the outcome visit., Results: Sixty-two percent of normal-weight individuals were metabolically healthy, whereas only 34% of overweight/obese individuals were metabolically healthy. In a mutually adjusted model including both exposure scores, a psychosocial score of ≥3 (compared with 0) was associated with increased risk of being metabolically unhealthy (compared with healthy) in both normal-weight adults (relative risk = 2.49; 95% confidence interval = 0.87-7.13) and overweight/obese adults (1.87; 0.96-3.61). However, the socioeconomic adversity score was more strongly related to metabolic health status in overweight/obese adults (1.60; 0.98-2.60) than in normal-weight adults (0.95; 0.46-1.96)., Conclusions: Independently of socioeconomic adversity, psychosocial adversity in childhood may be associated with a poor cardiometabolic health profile, in both normal-weight and overweight/obese adults.

Background: Unintentional weight loss in older people has been linked to increased risk of mortality. We aimed to investigate common medical conditions and lifestyle factors, including body fat distribution, as potential determinants of recent and prospective unintentional weight loss in early old age. Methods: From the Medical Research Council (MRC) National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD), we included a total of 2234 study members aged 60–64 with information on unintentional weight loss in 2006–2010. Of these, 2136 also had information on unintentional weight loss recorded in 2015. Logistic regression was conducted to examine the associations between medical conditions, lifestyle, and body fat distribution at age 60–64 and unintentional weight loss at age 60–64 and 69. Results: A total of 109 of 2234 study members had unintentional weight loss at ages 60–64, and 166 of 2136 at age 69. Never smoking was associated with lower risk of unintentional weight loss at age 60–64 (OR = 0.29, 95%CI = 0.12–0.68 compared to current smokers), and this association remained when adjusted for other determinants. Greater waist-hip ratio (OR = 0.95, 95%CI = 0.91–0.99) and body fat-lean mass ratio (OR = 0.96, 95%CI = 0.94–0.99) were associated with less likelihood of unintentional weight loss at age 60–64. Never smoking and greater hip circumference at age 60–64 were associated with lower odds of unintentional weight loss at age 69. Conclusions: Smoking status and body fat distribution may help identify those at risk of unintentional weight loss in early old age. Their benefit in interventions to prevent age-associated weight loss needs to be further investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the study is presented in response to the article "Intuitive eating is inversely associated with body weight status in the general population-based NutriNet-Santé study," by G. M. Camilleri and colleagues in the 2016 issue.