The increasing prevalence of childhood obesity, as well as the recognition of
the role of early factors for the development of cardiovascular disease, called the
attention to the impact of the dynamics of adiposity across pediatric age on adult health
outcomes, highlighting the potential application of life course frameworks in this
context. Therefore, there is increasing interest in identifying critical and sensitive
periods for obesity development and to identify how to summarize lifetime exposure to
adiposity/obesity to measure its impact on cardiovascular disease. The discussion of the
application of the life course approach to the study of obesity determinants and its
relation with cardiometabolic health is presented in this chapter. Additionally, different
methods to summarize the cumulative exposure to adiposity are described as well as
the challenges of measuring direct and indirect effects of childhood adiposity on adult
cardiovascular disease.
Keywords: Adolescence, Cardiovascular disease, Childhood, Chronic disease,
Critical periods, Duration, Growth trajectories, Life course, Lifetime risk,
Obesity, Pediatric obesity, Sensitive periods.