Childhood obesity: medical, cultural and psychological factors

The aim of this thesis was to examine medical, cultural and psychological factors of childhood obesity in a multi-ethnic cohort. Medical factors Several associations between weight measured and hormones were determined in obese children between 6 and 18 years. Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) was associated with age and sex standardized body mass index (Z-BMI), impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, high total cholesterol, high LDL-cholesterol and high triglycerides. There were no significant associations between albumin/creatinine ratio and any cardiometabolic risk factors. Moreover, there was a low prevalence of microalbuminuria (an early marker of kidney disease). In contrast, an alarmingly high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was found in obese ethnic children (88%), while normal weight white children showed a prevalence of 20%. With a high loading dose of 25 000 IU weekly vitamin D3 supplementation, 84.4% of these children improved from deficiency (