Concordance of haemoglobin A1c, blood pressure and C-reactive protein between children and their parents in Chinese households

Abstract

Background: China has the world's highest diabetes prevalence, which along with hypertension and inflammation continues to grow particularly among children. Little is known about the strength of the association of these cardiometabolic risk factors between parents and their children; thus, the potential of household-based strategies to reduce risk is unknown.

Objectives: The objective of the study is to examine the parent-child association for haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), blood pressure (BP) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in a large, geographically diverse Chinese sample.

Methods: In 940 parent-child pairs (children aged 7-17 years) who participated in the 2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey, we measured each individual's HbA1c and CRP using fasting blood and BP. We used sex-specific random-effects linear regression to examine the parent-child association for these risk factors, accounting for within-family clustering.

Results: Child's HbA1c was positively associated with parental HbA1c. Beta coefficients ranged from 0.06 (95% CI 0.03-0.12) for father-daughter to 0.43 (95% CI 0.28-0.58) for mother-son pairs. We also detected a positive mother-daughter association for BP and positive father-child associations for CRP.

Conclusion: The statistically significant parent-child association for HbA1c, BP and CRP in Chinese families suggests that household-based interventions could be useful for confronting the high rates of diabetes, hypertension and inflammation in China.

Keywords: Cardiometabolic risk factors; China; household structure; parent-offspring association; urbanization.