Associations between birthweight and overweight and obesity in school‐age children

摘要

Summary Background Relationships between birthweight and future obesity risk remain unclear. Objective To assess associations between birthweight and later obesity in a nationally representative cohort of early school‐aged children. Methods We used linear and logistic regression to evaluate 10?186 term‐ or preterm children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Kindergarten Cohort 2011 for relationships between birthweight and later obesity and change in BMI z‐score from kindergarten‐to‐second grade. All analyses were adjusted for sex, race/ethnicity, parental education and household income. Results Compared to children born normal birthweight (NBW), high birthweight (HBW) term children and large‐for‐gestational‐age (LGA) preterm children had significantly greater BMI z‐scores from kindergarten‐to‐second grade ( p ??0.001). Term children born HBW had higher odds of obesity by kindergarten (adjusted odds ratios [aOR] 1.91, p ??0.0001). Among preterm children, odds of obesity was higher among LGA children starting in first grade (aOR 2.34, p ??0.05) and among small‐for‐gestational age children in second grade (aOR 2.26, p ??0.05). Compared to NBW children, HBW children had greater change in BMI z‐score between kindergarten‐first grade ( p ??0.01). Conclusions High birthweight term and LGA preterm children had increased adjusted odds of obesity in school‐age compared to their NBW counterparts. Physicians may provide counselling early in life for families of large infants to help prevent future obesity.