The findings for this study were reason to be positive, according to, Elvira Isganaitis, MD, an assistant investigator and staff pediatric endocrinologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.
“What I found really interesting about this study is that the authors were able to define certain periods over the life course where one’s bodyweight – being obese versus lean – seems to predict the long term risk of type 2 diabetes. And, so, it turned out that certain time periods were potentially more important than others, which is important for public health considerations and prevention. Individuals who were only overweight or obese at age 7 but had a healthy weight by age 13 and older, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes normalized. But, for those individuals in whom the overweight persisted beyond childhood, the risk was a lot stronger,” she said.
“As a pediatric endocrinologist who is really interested in obesity treatment and prevention, it is a really heartening message that our efforts to achieve healthy weight balance in early childhood has the potential to pay dividends over decades,” she added.
The results of the study offer greater insight regarding how being overweight at younger ages can influence the development of type 2 diabetes. When asked how these results from a population with broad access to health care may translate to the U.S. population, Dr. Bjerregaard stated, “The organization of the health care system and access to treatment of type 2 diabetes is not relevant if type 2 diabetes is successfully prevented by early normalization of weight. However, access to health care for the overweight pediatric population may be an important factor determining the likelihood of remission of overweight in contemporary populations who are exposed to more obesogenic environments.”
Dr. Bjerregaard and another researcher both received grants from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. All other researchers had no financial conflicts to report. The study was supported by funding from the European Commission Horizon 2020 program as part of the DynaHEALTH project and by the European Research Council.