Table 1.

Telomere length (T:S), sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and weight status in Latino children at 9 years of age (N=102) (San Francisco included from birth between 2006–7)

	Over- weight at 9 years (60/102)	Not over- weight at 9 years	P	Obese at 9 years (43/102)	Not obese at 9 years	p	Chronic obesity8 (36/90)	No chronic obesity	P	Weight gain9 (13/54)	No weight gain	p	Weight loss10 (4/40)	No weight loss	P
Telomere length at 4 years (T:S) (mean ± SD)	1.80 ± 0.34	1.77 ± 0.39	0.71	1.71 ± 0.28	1.84 ± 0.41	0.16	1.74 ± 0.28	1.84 ± 0.41	0.23	1.81 ± 0.29	1.81 ± 0.39	0.98	1.88 ± 0.27	1.74 ± 0.28	0.42
Telomere length at 5 years (T:S) (mean ± SD)	1.94 ± 0.28	2.02 ± 0.40	0.27	1.90 ± 0.25	2.02 ± 0.38	0.11	1.90 ± 0.26	2.04 ± 0.38	0.08	1.99 ± 0.27	2.03 ± 0.37	0.75	1.73 ± 0.16	1.90 ± 0.26	0.30
Telomere length at 4 and 5 years (mean ± SE)	1.87 ± 0.04	1.88 ± 0.06	0.82	1.81 ± 0.04	1.92 ± 0.05	0.07	1.82 ± 0.04	1.93 ± 0.05	0.10	1.89 ± 0.07	1.91 ± 0.06	0.91	1.81 ± 0.09	1.83 ± 0.04	0.81
Change in telomere length from 4 to 5 years in months (T:S) (mean ± SD)	0.05 ± 0.21	0.02 ± 0.03	0.59	0.06 ± 0.30	0.01 ± 0.03	0.31	0.07 ± 0.33	0.04 ± 0.03	0.30	0.01 ± 0.02	0.02 ± 0.03	0.74	−0.01 ± 0.03	0.07 ± 0.33	0.74
Excessive sugar-sweetened beverages intake at 5 years (≥4 times a week), n/T (%)	15/59 (25)	6/40 (15)	0.21	13/42 (31)	8/57 (14)	0.04	10/36 (28)	8/53 (15)	0.14	4/13 (31)	6/41 (15)	0.2311	0/4 (0)	10/36 (28)	0.564

⁸Chronic obesity is defined as obesity at both age 5 and 9 years and no chronic obesity is defined as not being obese at either.

⁹Weight gain between 5 and 9 years is defined as going from normal to overweight or obese and going from overweight to obese. No weight gain is defined as staying normal or overweight at both time points

¹⁰Weight loss is defined as being obese at 5 years, but not at 9 years and no weight loss is staying obese from 5 to 9 years

¹¹Fischer’s exact test