Interrelationships between Nutrient Intake and Plasma Lipids and Lipoproteins in Schoolchildren Aged 6 to 19: The Princeton School District Study

¹ Lipid Research Clinic and General Clinical Research Centers, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati

Relationships between nutrient intakes and plasma lipids and lipoproteins were studied in 1,669 schoolchildren, aged 6 to 19 years; 948 were selected by random recall and 721 because of elevated plasma cholesterol or triglyceride (hyperlipidemic recall). Nutrient intake data was collected by using a 24-hour dietary recall. Median dietary cholesterol intakes for 6 to 9-year-old boys and girls in the random recall group were 222 and 230 mg/day, with polyunsaturated/saturated fat ratios of 0.34 and 0.33. For boys and girls, aged 10 to 12 years, median dietary cholesterol intakes were 296 and 235 mg/day, for 13 to 15 year olds, 343 and 237, and for 16 to 19 year olds, 418 and 221 mg/day. The dietary polyunsaturated/saturated fat ratios did not change appreciably with age. Partial correlation coefficients describing relationships between lipids, lipoproteins, and nutrients after adjustment for age, sex, race, and Quetelet index (W/H²) were calculated for all children (random and hyperlipidemic recall) after excluding children having plasma cholesterol, triglycerides, and calories less than or equal to the first or greater than or equal to the 99th percentiles for the random recall children. Plasma cholesterol was inversely and triglyceride positively correlated with dietary sucrose. Plasma low density lipoprotein cholesterol was inversely correlated with the dietary polyunsaturated/saturated fat ratio, total carbohydrate, and sugar. Potential relationships between nutrients and lipids-lipoproteins were also examined in children having low (first to tenth percentile), intermediate (45th to 55th percentile), and high (90th to 99th percentile) nutrient intake, after covariance adjustment for age, race, sex, and Quetelet index. Total plasma cholesterol fell as sucrose intake increased. Triglyceride rose along with caloric intake, total carbohydrate intake, and sucrose intake, while high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels fell with increasing caloric and sucrose intake. As dietary polyun-saturate ingestion rose from low to intermediate to high, plasma low density lipoprotein cholesterol increased. Nutrient intake may play a small but significant role relative to lipids and lipoproteins in children and, as such, may have importance relative to pediatric precursors of atherosclerosis.