Impact of Childhood Tonsillectomy on Adult Height—A Study of the UK Biobank

IF 1.7 4区医学 Q2 OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGY

Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology Pub Date : 2025-07-26 DOI:10.1002/lio2.70213

Wendan Gong, Ioannis Psychogios, Yihan Hu, Shangjun Li, Wenwen Chen, Jiaming Su, Huan Song, Xue Xiao, Zhe Zhang, Yi Huang, Fang Fang

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Abstract

Objectives

Previous studies have suggested a postoperative “catch-up growth” in children undergoing tonsillectomy. Given the tonsils' crucial role in early immune development, examining long-term effects is imperative. This study aims to investigate the impact of tonsillectomy in early life on adult height and height disparity.

Methods

Using data from the UK Biobank, we compared individuals with a childhood tonsillectomy to individuals without such an experience, after matching them individually by age and sex. We used standing height measured at recruitment to the UK Biobank as attained adult height, polygenic risk score (PRS) for height as a proxy for genetically determined height, and height deviation and height deficit as proxies for height disparity. We assessed the association of tonsillectomy with these outcomes, using a linear mixed-effect model or conditional logistic regression, after multivariable adjustment.

Results

Individuals with a childhood tonsillectomy had a slightly higher attained adult height (mean: 169.0 cm; standard deviation [SD] 9.23) compared to their age- and sex-matched comparators (mean: 168.5 cm; SD 9.30). After multivariable adjustment, childhood tonsillectomy was associated with a marginally higher attained adult height (β: 0.34; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.26–0.41), a positive height deviation (β: 1.7; 95% CI: 1.4–2.1), and lower odds of height deficit (odds ratio [OR]: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.87–0.92), but not PRS for height (β: −0.24; 95% CI: −0.50 to 0.03). The first three associations were more pronounced among individuals with a lower PRS for height, compared to those with a higher PRS for height. The magnitude of the associations for adult height and height deviation also appeared to decrease with increasing age at surgery.

Conclusions

Individuals with childhood tonsillectomy did not demonstrate height disparity as adults, compared to individuals without such a procedure or relative to their genetically determined height.

Level of Evidence

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儿童扁桃体切除术对成人身高的影响——英国生物银行的研究

目的以往的研究表明，儿童扁桃体切除术后存在“追赶性生长”。鉴于扁桃体在早期免疫发育中起着至关重要的作用，研究其长期影响势在必行。本研究旨在探讨早期扁桃体切除术对成人身高和身高差异的影响。方法使用来自英国生物银行的数据，我们将儿童扁桃体切除术的个体与没有这种经历的个体进行了比较，并根据年龄和性别进行了匹配。我们使用英国生物银行招募时测量的站立高度作为成年身高，多基因风险评分（PRS）作为遗传决定身高的代表，身高偏差和身高不足作为身高差距的代表。在多变量调整后，我们使用线性混合效应模型或条件逻辑回归评估扁桃体切除术与这些结果的关系。结果儿童扁桃体切除术患者的成年身高略高(平均：169.0 cm；标准偏差[SD] 9.23)，与年龄和性别匹配的比较者相比(平均：168.5 cm；SD 9.30)。经多变量调整后，儿童扁桃体切除术与成人身高略高相关(β: 0.34；95%可信区间[CI]: 0.26-0.41)，高度偏差为正(β: 1.7；95% CI: 1.4-2.1)，以及较低的身高缺陷几率(优势比[OR]: 0.89；95% CI: 0.87-0.92)，但身高的PRS没有(β:−0.24；95% CI:−0.50 ~ 0.03)。与身高PRS较高的个体相比，前三个关联在身高PRS较低的个体中更为明显。成人身高和身高偏差的相关性也随着手术年龄的增加而降低。结论：与未做过扁桃体切除术的个体相比，或与其基因决定的身高相比，童年切除扁桃体的个体在成年后没有表现出身高差异。证据水平

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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