CARDIOVASCULAR RISK-FACTORS IN CHILDREN FROM THE BELGIAN PROVINCE OF LUXEMBOURG - THE BELGIAN LUXEMBOURG CHILD STUDY

The Province of Luxembourg is an area in Belgium with a high prevalenc e of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus among adults, In the present study, children in the age groups 6-8, 8-10, and 10-12 years were selected at random from sc hool classes (n = 1,028), with a participation rate of 70.3%. Anthropo metric factors, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose, plasma chol esterol, triglyceride, and insulin levels were measured in 1992. All a nthropometric and metabolic variables increased with age, except for w aist:hip circumference ratio in boys and cholesterol in girls. In the oldest group, girls who had passed menarche were taller and heavier an d had greater skinfold, body mass index, insulin, and systolic blood p ressure values but lower total cholesterol levels and waist : hip rati os than girls who had not passed menarche. Boys had lower skinfolds an d higher waist : hip ratios than girls in all age groups, and were sig nificantly shorter and lighter in the oldest age group. There was no d ifference in body mass index between the two sexes. Girls had higher t riglyceride and insulin levels in the 10- to 12-year age group, lower blood glucose values in the 8-10 and 10-12 age groups, and lower diast olic blood pressures in the 8-10 age group. Obesity, blood glucose, tr iglycerides, insulin, and blood pressure were highly interrelated, Cho lesterol, triglycerides, insulin, and blood pressure values were all a mong the highest of values previously reported in other studies. The d eciles of body mass index above 50 appeared to be particularly elevate d, suggesting that obesity, when present, was pronounced in this popul ation of children. These findings suggest an accumulation of genetic s usceptibility to cardiovascular disease and non-insulin-dependent diab etes mellitus in this stable, ethnically homogeneous, and rather isola ted part of continental Europe.