According to new research, obese kids with big bellies have a greater risk of getting heart disease - just as heavy grown-ups do.

Obese children with waists bigger than 90 per cent of their peers had lower good HDL cholesterol levels, higher harmful triglyceride (fat) levels and greater insulin resistance - a risk factor for type 2 diabetes - as compared to obese kids with smaller waists, researchers found.

'This tells us they are more at risk of getting heart problems later in life,"

Dr Reda Bassali of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta told Reuters Health.

A large waist circumference is a well-established risk factor for heart disease and type 2 diabetes in obese adults, Dr Bassali and his colleagues noted in the International Journal Of Pediatric Obesity.

To investigate whether the same might be true for kids, they looked at 188 healthy obese children from seven to 11 years old. Thirty-five of the children were severely obese, while 119 had waist circumferences above the 90th percentile for children their age and sex.

Compared to children with smaller waists, children with large waists were 27 times more likely to be severely obese, 3.6 times as likely to have low levels of heart-healthy HDL cholesterol, three times as likely to have high triglyceride levels and 3.7 times as likely to have high fasting insulin levels, the researchers found.

Checking waist circumference in obese children could be an effective way of identifying those who are at greatest risk of developing diabetes and heart disease later, they reported.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.