Association between birth weight and risk of abdominal obesity in children and adolescents: a school-based epidemiology
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Association between birth weight and risk of abdominal obesity in children and adolescents: a school-based epidemiology survey in China Zhaogen Yang1, Bin Dong1, Yi Song1, Xijie Wang1, Yanhui Dong1, Di Gao1, Yanhui Li1, Zhiyong Zou1, Jun Ma1* and Luke Arnold2
Abstract Background: Abdominal obesity is becoming an increasingly serious public health challenge in children and adolescents, there remains controversial opinions on birth weight and risk of childhood abdominal obesity. This study aims to assess the association between birth weight and the risk of abdominal obesity in childhood, as well as to compare the associations among different sex and age groups. Methods: A total number of 30,486 (15,869 boys and 14,617 girls) participants aged 6–17 years old were included in this study. Participants were classified into five groups according to their birth weight. Waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) was used to define abdominal obesity. Fractional polynomial regression model was used to assess the association between birth weight and WHtR, and a multi-variable logistic regression model was applied to evaluate the risk of abdominal obesity in different birth weight groups. Results: A J-shaped association was observed between birth weight and WHtR. Compared with birth weight of 2500–2999 g, high birth weight was associated with increased risk of abdominal obesity [OR (95% CI) for 3000– 3499 g: 1.12(1.00–1.24); 3500–3999 g: 1.19(1.07–1.34); ≥4000 g: 1.42(1.24–1.62)]. No significant correlation was observed in children with birth weight ≤ 2499 g. Similar patterns were observed across different age groups. Abdominal obesity risk for high birth weight was particularly pronounced in boys compared to girls. Conclusions: Birth weight ≥ 3000 g, especially for boys, was associated with an elevated risk of abdominal obesity in childhood and may benefit from intervention to mitigate this risk.
Background Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges worldwide [1]. In China, the prevalence of overweight and obesity among school-aged children has increased from 3.0% in 1985 to 19.4% in 2014 [2, 3]. It has been demonstrated that childhood * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Institute of Child and Adolescent Health & School of Public Health, Peking University, No. 38 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
overweight and obesity increase risk of many adverse health consequences throughout life-course [1, 4, 5]. Although obesity had been typically defined using body mass index (BMI), it has been demonstrated that BMI has limited capacity in measuring fat distribution [6]. Other anthropometric indices, such as waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) [7–9], are simple and useful indicators of abdominal fat. Compared with BMI, WHtR has been suggested as a superior predictor of obesity related adverse health
© The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons A
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