Findings indicate that links of adiposity with adverse cardiometabolic risk commence earlier in the life course among males than females and are more robust until midlife, especially for key atherogenic lipids. Thus, adolescent and young adult males could represent high priority targets for obesity prophylaxis efforts.

• Researchers utilized data from 2 generations of a UK cohort study which comprised 3,081 offspring born in 1991/1992 and 4,887 parents also recruited in 1991/1992 and followed up for 25 y, to assess the link between adiposity and 148 traits associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in females and males separately at 3 life stages: adolescence, early adulthood, and midlife.

• They found that adiposity, irrespective of the measure employed, was more strongly linked with key traits associated with CVD in males at younger ages (15 y to 25 y).

• By contrast, links of adiposity with these traits were found to be more similar between the genders or stronger in women at 50 y.

• Overall, these observations indicate that links of adiposity with cardiometabolic traits among both genders are likely to differ across different life stages.