Important periods of weight development in childhood: a population-based longitudinal study
Glavin, Kari; Roelants, Mathieu; Strand, Bjørn Heine; Juliusson, Petur Benedikt; Lie, Kari Kveim; Helseth, Sølvi; Hovengen, Ragnhild
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© 2014 glavin et al.; licensee bio med central ltd. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.
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Glavin, K., Roelants, M., Strand, B. H., Júlíusson, P. B., Lie, K. K., Helseth, S., & Hovengen, R. (2014). Important periods of weight development in childhood: a population-based longitudinal study. BMC public health, 14(1), 160. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-160Abstract
Background: Identifying important ages for the development of overweight is essential for optimizing preventive
efforts. The purpose of the study was to explore early growth characteristics in children who become overweight or
obese at the age of 8 years to identify important ages for the onset of overweight and obesity.
Methods: Data from the Norwegian Child Growth Study in 2010 (N = 3172) were linked with repeated
measurements from health records beginning at birth. Weight and height were used to derive the body mass
index (BMI) in kg/m2. The BMI standard deviation score (SDS) for each participant was estimated at specific target
ages, using a piecewise linear mixed effect model.
Results: At 8 years of age, 20.4% of the children were overweight or obese. Already at birth, overweight children
had a significantly higher mean BMI SDS than normal weight 8-year-olds (p < .001) and this difference increased in
consecutive age groups in infancy and childhood. A relatively large increase in BMI during the first 9 months was
identified as important for being overweight at 8 years. BMI SDS at birth was associated with overweight at 8 years
of age (OR, 1.8; 1.6–2.0), and with obesity (OR, 1.8; 1.4–2.3). The Odds Ratios for the BMI SDS and change in BMI SDS
further increased up to 1 year of age became very high from 2 years of age onwards.
Conclusions: A high birth weight and an increasing BMI SDS during the first 9 months and high BMI from 2 years
of age proved important landmarks for the onset of being overweight at 8 years of age. The risks of being
overweight at 8 years appear to start very early. Interventions to prevent children becoming overweight should not
only start at a very early age but also include the prenatal stage.