Abnormal BMI can affect a child’s future lung health Kids who are too skinny or too heavy can both suffer poor lung function as adults However, normalizing their weight in childhood can offset this impairment TUESDAY, Oct. 29, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Here's another good reason to help your child reach and maintain a healthy weight: A new study warns that kids who are either too skinny or too fat are at risk for impaired lung function. However, if their weight can be normalized before they reach adulthood, this impairment can be offset, results showed.
“This highlights how important it is to optimize children’s growth both early in life and during their early school years and adolescence,” said principal investigator , a professor of pediatrics with the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. About 1 in 10 children have reduced lung function development in childhood, and as a result they can’t achieve maximum lung capacity as adults, researchers explained in background notes. This increases their risk of serious health problems like heart disease, lung disease and diabetes.
For this study, researchers tracked 3,200 children from birth through age 24. During that period, the kids had their BMI measured between four to 14 times. “In this study, the largest so far, we’ve been able to follow children from birth all the way to the age of 24, covering the entire period of lung function development,” said lead investigator , a postdoctoral researcher in clinical science and .