Childhood Obesity, Body Fatness Indices, and Retinal Vasculature
Childhood obesity has become a critical public health problem both in developed and developing countries and is currently affecting millions of children worldwide. A body of evidence has shown that pediatric obesity is associated with a range of cardiovascular risk factors (e.g., insulin resistance, high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides, etc.), which will lead to type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease in later life. The advanced technology of retinal exam and retinal vessel assessment has granted an invasive and validated method in evaluating retinal vascular characteristics. Many epidemiologic studies have shown significant associations of retinal vasculature with a series of systemic factors (e.g., blood pressure and body mass index) and incidence of systemic, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular diseases. Since little is known about the process of vascular pathology in childhood long before any overt clinical symptoms manifest in adulthood, retinal vasculature provides an important portal to investigate the pathophysiologic mechanism of development of metabolic and cardiovascular complications among obese children.
