Welcome to
U
nder
standing FIT
ness and c
ardiometabolic h
ealth i
n l
ittle d
arlings (urFIT-child)
U
nder
standingFIT
ness andc
ardiometabolich
ealthi
nl
ittled
arlings(urFIT-child)
A treasure chest of 21st-century novel discoveries aimed at improving children, adolescents, and young adults' health.
Description
We are a multi-disciplinary and multi-collaborative research group with clear objectives
U
nder
standingFIT
ness andc
ardiometabolich
ealthi
nl
ittled
arlings (urFIT-child) is a multi-disciplinary and multi-collaborative research group in cooperation with renowned global experts across several continents, viz; Oceania, North America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Our objectives are to:Improving
Improve understanding of the development of cardiovascular, metabolic, and arterial diseases from childhood until young adulthood.
Identifying
Identify critical time periods of significant deviation from physiology to pathology during growth and maturation.
Simulating
Simulate potential intervention effects in situation where randomized clinical trials are lacking in apparently healthy children and adolescents.
Examining
Examine mechanistic cross-talk within modifiable risk factors and non-modifiable risk factors to inform potentially effective intervention strategies.
Causality
Investigate causal inferences in risk factors relationships that prospectively influence cardiac, metabolic, and arterial health from childhood through young adulthood.
Discovering
Discover novel risk factors for several paediatric diseases such as hypertension, insulin resistance (type 2 diabetes), obesity, premature cardiac damage, atherosclerosis, dyslipidaemia in which several intervention strategies have had limited success.
Gaps
To fill knowledge gaps identified by the World Health Organization and other global public health agencies through the provision of substantial scientific evidence useful in updating health guidelines in primarily preventing non-communicable diseases.
Tools
Provide new tools for accurately and cheaply diagnosing childhood obesity globally.
Modifiable risk factors are total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, insulin resistance (glucose and insulin), blood pressure, heart rate, low-grade inflammation, obesity, body composition (fat mass and muscle mass), sedentary time, light physical activity, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, smoking habit, cardiorespiratory fitness. Risk factors were measured during clinic visits from childhood starting at age 7 years and repeated either yearly or bi-annually until age 17 years. Young adulthood assessments occurred at age 24 years clinic visit, the 30-year clinic visit data collection has been completed (2022 - 2024).
With world-class data (Children of the 90s) from the University of Bristol, UK, our findings reach the widest audience possible.
