With the rapid development of the society, the detection rate of dyslipidemia in children has gradually increased. At present, there are few data on the application of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) constitution identification in sub-health of children, and there is a lack of clinical correlation data analysis.

To observe the trend of changes in TCM constitution and blood lipid metabolism in children, and to analyze the correlation between them, thus providing relevant basis for subsequent continuous monitoring research.

Sourced from the Shanghai Child and Adolescent Health Cohort (SCAHC), a total of 2 080 healthy primary school students in the second and third grade from Pudong New Area, Shanghai were selected as the research subjects. Using the＂Zhaoming System＂that was independently developed by Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, physical information of included subjects in 2021 (first year) and 2022 (second year) was collected. Based on the TCM constitution classification of facial complexion and tongue appearance, clinical symptoms and signs and questionnaire information, children were divided into five types of constitution, including the spleen-deficiency constitution, balanced constitution, Qi-stagnation constitution, deficiency-heat constitution, and excess heat constitution (unbalanced constitution referred to all constitutions except for the balanced constitution). Blood samples were collected to detect on triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and total cholesterol (TC). To analyze and compare the incidence of blood lipid abnormalities in children of different genders, as well as the distribution characteristics and changes of TCM constitution in different ages and genders. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the correlation between TCM constitution and dyslipidemia in children.

Among the 2 080 children, 1 122 (53.9%) were males and 958 (46.1%) were females, with an average age of (8.2±0.4) years. There were 522 children with dyslipidemia (25.09%), including 272 males (52.1%) and 250 females (47.9%). In 2021, there were 815 (39.2%) cases of the balanced constitution and 1 265 (60.8%) cases of the unbalanced constitution. In 2022, 764 (36.7%) children had a balanced constitution and 1 316 (63.3%) had a unbalanced constitution. There was a statistically significant difference in the distribution of TCM constitution in children between 2021 and 2022 (χ²=106.28, P<0.001). The detection rate of unbalanced constitution in boys was significantly higher than that in girls (χ²₂₀₂₁=14.073, P<0.001; χ²₂₀₂₂=20.090, P<0.001). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis, after excluding demographic factors such as gender and age, showed that elevated HDL-C in children was a contributing factor to the occurrence of balanced constitution (OR=1.624, 95%CI=1.258-2.097, P<0.001), and deficiency-heat constitution (OR=0.654, 95%CI=0.499-0.858, P=0.002) .

Through analyzing the changing trend in TCM constitution and blood lipid metabolism in children from the SCAHC cohort, an increased HDL-C promotes the occurrence of balanced constitution but inhibits the occurrence of deficiency-heat constitution.