Andrew Agbaje’s abstract on the effect of childhood sedentariness on liver health was selected for an Outstanding Abstract Award at the Endocrine Society’s ENDO 2024 congress in Boston, US where he gave an oral presentation. The full original article was simultaneously published in Nature’s npj Gut and Liver.
Andrew Agbaje is a physician and associate professor (docent) of clinical epidemiology and child health at the University of Eastern Finland.
Agbaje’s study revealed that for each half-hour of sedentary behaviour above six hours per day, children had 15 percent increased risk of developing severe fatty liver disease as well as liver cirrhosis by 24 years of age. Sedentariness also significantly increased liver enzymes. However, each additional half hour of light physical activity (LPA) beyond three hours per day reduced the risk of severe fatty liver disease by 33 percent. The results were highlighted in an ENDO 2024 press release and press conference on paediatric health, a video of which can be watched below. Agbaje’s presentation starts at the 9th minute.
Agbaje’s research was more widely featured in the March 2024 edition of the Endocrine Society Magazine focusing on paediatric obesity.
EASO awarded Agbaje's research in childhood obesity
Recently, Agbaje was also recognised with the New Investigator Award in Childhood Obesity by the European Association for the Study of Obesity, EASO, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Agbaje proposed waist-to-height ratio cut off that could be adopted among the European population for detecting childhood and adolescent obesity. Watch the interview here.
“None of these awards and recognition would have been possible without the extraordinary research collaboration between the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Bristol and the University of Exeter in the UK, and the financial support of several funders. We appreciate the Children of the 90s who continue to participate in the three-decade long study, contributing world class data that has helped updated scientific evidence in paediatric health,” says Agbaje.
“In a nutshell, findings from the Children of the 90s have revealed the morbid danger of childhood sedentariness. Sedentariness is a major cause of obesity, high cholesterol, inflammation, excess insulin, premature vascular, cardiac and liver damage. The data also helped us discover light physical activity as an overlooked antidote for effectively combating sedentariness. Let’s keep fighting for kids’ health, because today’s kids are tomorrow’s adults,” Agbaje concludes.
Agbaje’s research group (urFIT-CHILD) is supported by research grants from Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, the Finnish Cultural Foundation Central Fund, the Finnish Cultural Foundation North Savo Regional Fund, the Orion Research Foundation, the Aarne Koskelo Foundation, the Antti and Tyyne Soininen Foundation, the Paulo Foundation, the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation, the Paavo Nurmi Foundation, the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research, Ida Montin Foundation, Eino Räsänen Fund, Matti and Vappu Maukonen Fund, the Foundation for Pediatric Research, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
For further information, please contact:
Andrew Agbaje, MD, MPH, PhD, FESC, FAHA, Cert. Clinical Research (Harvard), Professor (associate) of Clinical Epidemiology and Child Health, Principal Investigator (urFIT-child). Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, School of Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. andrew.agbaje(a)uef.fi, +358 46 896 5633
Honorary Research Fellow – Children's Health and Exercise Research Centre, Public Health and Sports Sciences Department, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK. a.agbaje@exeter.ac.uk
https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/person/andrew.agbaje/
Webpage: urFIT-CHILD Research group
Link to the article:
Agbaje AO. Accelerometer-based sedentary time and physical activity with MASLD and liver cirrhosis in 2684 British adolescents. npj Gut and Liver 2024 June 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44355-024-00002-y
