Chinese Study Reinforces Criticality of Weight Management Early in Life

An eclectic group of scientists, medical researchers and doctors known as the China Kadoorie Biobank Collaborative Group conducted a prospective analysis, tapping into data from the China Kadoorie Biobank--the large and long-term cohort from five urban areas and five rural areas. Specifically, the researchers collected data involving participants aged 35–70 years, with an aim on measuring a primary outcome involving incidence of cardiovascular diseases as a group, ischemic heart disease, hemorrhagic stroke, and ischemic stroke.  The researchers were able to access this latter information thanks to linkages to disease registries and the national database for health insurance claims.  As part of the study the study team assessed early adulthood BMI through self-report at baseline survey. Then, employing Cox proportional hazards regression models to review the prospective associations., the team also undertook multiplicative and additive interaction analyses to investigate the potential modification effect of midlife healthy lifestyle factors (a combined score covering smoking, drinking, physical activity, and diet).

Representing the study team were Yuanyuan Chen, MSc, an epidemiologist and Canqing Yu, PhD corresponding author both at Peking University Health Science Center, School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and colleagues. Funding for the study originated from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, Kadoorie Charitable Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust.