Body fat distribution, metabolic and inflammatory markers and retinal microvasculature in school-age children. The Generation R Study

Objective: To examine the associations of body fatness, metabolic and inflammatory markers with retinal vessel calibers among children. Design: We performed a population-based cohort study among 4145 school-age children. At the median age of 6.0 years (95% range 5.8, 8.0 years), we measured body mass index, total and abdominal fat mass, metabolic and inflammatory markers (blood levels of lipids, insulin and C-peptide and C-reactive protein) and retinal vascular calibers from retinal photographs. Results: We observed that compared with normal weight children, obese children had narrower retinal arteriolar caliber (difference −0.21 s.d. score (SDS; 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.35, −0.06)), but not venular caliber. Continuous analyses showed that higher body mass index and total body fat mass, but not android/gynoid fat mass ratio and pre-peritoneal fat mass, were associated with narrower retinal arteriolar caliber ( P