Prospective associations between leukocyte telomere length and adiposity in childhood

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is associated with obesity and may be involved in its aetiology, but few studies have focused on children and most have been cross-sectional. We assessed the relation of LTL with adiposity development in a prospective study of Colombian children. We quantified LTL at enrollment in 722 children aged 5-12 years and measured anthropometry annually for a median 6 years. Using mixed effects models, we estimated changes in adiposity measures including BMI and waist circumference (WC)-for-age z-scores in relation to baseline LTL z-score. In girls, longer LTL was linearly related to a lower increase in WC z-score from age 6 to 16 years. Every 1 SD LTL was associated with an adjusted 0.13 units lower increase in WC (95% CI: -0.23, -0.03; p = 0.01). In conclusion, longer LTL among girls in middle childhood is associated with smaller increases in WC, an indicator of abdominal adiposity.