Table 3.

Relationship of BMI and Triceps Skinfold Thickness to Risk Factor Levels in Adulthood

	Risk Factors in Adulthood^*
	Total Cholesterol	Triglycerides	LDL Cholesterol	HDL Cholesterol	Insulin	Systolic Blood Pressure	Diastolic Blood Pressure
Adult levels
BMI	0.26^†	0.36	0.29	−0.31	0.59	0.23	0.21
Triceps skinfold thickness	0.20	0.25	0.23	−0.24	0.51	0.15	0.17
Childhood levels
BMI percentile	0.10	0.16	0.11	−0.14	0.26	0.08	0.09
Triceps skinfold thickness	0.10	0.12	0.08	−0.12	0.21	0.07	0.07
Change in BMI during follow-up^‡	0.17	0.22	0.20	−0.18	0.34	0.15	0.13
Childhood BMI percentile adjusted for adult BMI	−0.08	−0.09	−0.09	0.07	−0.15	−0.07	−0.05

LDL indicates low density lipoprotein.
↵* With the exception of insulin, all analyses are based on the 2587 participants with complete data on all risk factors; analyses of insulin are based on 2531 participants. Given the large sample size, a correlation of ∼0.06 would be statistically significant at the .001 level.
↵† Values are Spearman correlation coefficients adjusted for race, sex, and age. The last row presents correlation coefficients with childhood BMI that have also controlled for adult BMI levels.
↵‡ Based on BMI percentiles in both childhood and adulthood; the latter percentile was calculated from the sex-specific rankings of all participants in the current study. Change was calculated as BMI percentile in adulthood minus BMI percentile in childhood; a positive value indicates that the relative BMI level increased between childhood and adulthood.