Children’s exposome associated with changes in serum metabolites

The combined effect of environmental exposures and unhealthy lifestyle habits can affect children’s cardiometabolic health in a way that exceeds their separate effects. A new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows the benefit of measuring the combined effect of multiple environmental and lifestyle factors. An exposome score measuring a combination of environmental and lifestyle exposures was associated with a large number of serum metabolites linked to cardiometabolic health, with a number of these metabolites uniquely associated with the exposome score.

The study involved 504 children aged 6-9 years who were followed up for eight years in the ongoing Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children (PANIC) Study in the city of Kuopio, Finland. The results were published in Communications Biology.