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Background and Aim: Childhood obesity is an emerging problem often leading to earlier onset of non-communicable diseases in later life. Biomarkers to identify individual risk scores are insufficient in routine clinical practice, which is related to the need for easily sampled, non-invasive survey methods in children. We aimed to investigate and strengthen possible pro-inflammatory markers and epigenetic risk factors in saliva of obese children compared to lean controls., Methods and Results: 19 overweight/obese (OC, 10.1 ± 1.9 years, BMI 27.7 ± 3.2 kg/m 2 ) and 19 lean control children (CC, 9.7 ± 2.5 years, BMI 16.4 ± 1.8 kg/m 2 ) participated in this explorative pilot study. Anthropometric measures, saliva and cheek swab samples were taken. Saliva profiles were examined for acute phase proteins (CRP and neopterin) and pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-17a/IL-1β/IL-6). Cheek swabs were analyzed to investigate DNA methylation differences with subsequent hierarchical cluster and principal component analyses (PCA). Saliva analysis showed significant increased CRP concentrations in OC compared to CC (p < 0.001). There were no significant differences, but high intra-individual values in neopterin, IL-17a, IL-1β and IL-6. An unsupervised PCA of CpG loci with high variance (σ/σ max  > 0.2) clearly separated OC and CC according to their methylation pattern. Furthermore, a supervised approach revealed 7125 significantly differentially methylated loci, whose corresponding genes were significantly enriched for genes playing roles in e.g., cellular signalling, cytoskeleton organization and cell motility., Conclusions: CRP and methylation status determinations in saliva are suitable as non-invasive methods for early detection of risks for non-communicable diseases in children/adolescents and might be a useful supplementary approach in the routine clinical practice/monitoring., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest No conflict of interest to disclosure., (Copyright © 2022 The Italian Diabetes Society, the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis, the Italian Society of Human Nutrition and the Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background & Aims: Malnutrition is widespread among older people and related to poor outcome. Reported prevalences vary widely, also because of different diagnostic criteria used. This study aimed to describe prevalences in several populations of older persons in different settings using harmonized definitions., Methods: Available studies within the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) Knowledge Hub 'Malnutrition in the Elderly' (MaNuEL) were used to calculate and compare prevalences of malnutrition indicators: low BMI (<20 kg/m 2 ; age-specific BMI <20 if age 65-<70 and <22 kg/m 2 if age ≥70 years), previous weight loss (WL), moderate and severe decrease in food intake, and combined BMI <20 kg/m 2 and/or WL in participants aged ≥65 years., Results: Fifteen samples with in total 5956 participants (59.3% women) were included: 7 consisting of community-dwelling persons, 2 studies in geriatric day hospitals, 3 studies in hospitalized patients and 3 in nursing homes. Mean age of participants ranged between 67 and 87 years. Up to 4.2% of community-dwelling persons had a BMI <20 kg/m 2 , 1.6 and 9% of geriatric day hospital patients, 4.5-9.4% of hospital patients and 3.8-18.2% of nursing home residents. Using age-specific cut-offs doubled these prevalences. WL was reported in 2.3-10.5% of community-dwelling persons, 6% and 12.6% of geriatric day hospital patients, 5-14% of hospitalized patients and 4.5-7.7% of nursing home residents. Severe decrease in food intake was recorded in up to 9.6% of community-dwelling persons, 1.5% and 12% of geriatric day hospital patients, 3.4-34.2% of hospitalized patients and 1.5-8.2% of nursing home residents. The criteria age-specific BMI and WL showed opposing prevalences across all settings. Compared to women, low BMI and moderate decrease in food intake showed low prevalences in men but similar prevalences were observed for weight loss and severe decrease in food intake. In half of the study samples, participants in a younger age group had a higher prevalence of WL compared to those of an older age group. Prevalence of BMI <20 kg/m 2 and WL at the same time did not exceed 2.6% in all samples. The highest prevalences were observed based on combined definitions when only one of the three criteria had to be present., Conclusions: Prevalences for different criteria vary between and within the settings which might be explained by varying functional status. The criteria used strongly affect prevalence and it may be preferable to look at each criterion separately as each may indicate a nutritional problem., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved.)

Background & Aims: To compare reported and recommended carbohydrate intake in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and to explore associations with BMI, HbA1c and lipid profile., Methods: A cross-sectional observational study of reported carbohydrate intake in 46,010 patients with T1D aged 1-18 years from 332 diabetes centres in Germany and Austria in comparison to age-matched healthy children and adolescents., Results: The median reported carbohydrate intake in T1D patients was markedly lower than in healthy children. It varied between 56% and 90% of recommended amounts across the paediatric age range with younger patients showing levels closer to recommend. Lower carbohydrate intake was associated with higher BMI-SDS (p < 0.001), particularly during adolescence, higher total cholesterol (p < 0.001), higher LDL-cholesterol (p = 0.005) and lower HbA1c (p < 0.001)., Conclusions: The methodologically simple measure of reported carbohydrate intake may be a valuable addition to the information gathered on paediatric patients with T1D in an outpatient setting. Children and adolescents with T1D appear to restrict their consumption of carbohydrates, which may have adverse effects on BMI and the lipid profile, particularly if there is a compensatory increased fat intake. Health care providers should therefore advise patients and parents of the recommended age-dependent levels of carbohydrate intake., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved.)