Tracking of serum lipids and dietary energy, fat and calcium intake from 1 to 15 years.

We describe the results of tracking serum lipids, and dietary intake of energy, fat and calcium in a cohort of 106 children in the Adelaide Nutrition Study who were followed to 15 years of age together with an additional 123 children recruited from 11 years of age. Measures of energy, fat and calcium intakes were obtained from analyses of 4-day weighed records. The pattern and level of tracking were similar for males and females. The tracking coefficient for total cholesterol was 0.28-0.49 between 1 and 15 years of age, 0.3-0.64 between 2-8 and 15 years of age adn 0.71-0.78 between 13 and 15 years of age. The pattern was similar for low density lipoprotein cholesterol, but lower for high density lipoprotein cholesterol. For mean daily energy, fat and calcium intake, tracking coefficients were low below 4 years of age, but from then on were 0.46-0.64 for energy intake, 0.38-0.51 for fat (g) and 0.51-0.62 for calcium (mg).