title: The juvenile-onset, adolescent-onset and adult-onset obese.
abstract: As shown in more than 8000 proband-parent pairs derived from a total-community sample and followed in longitudinal fashion, the 5-year incidence of obesity (new cases per 5-year period) approximates 8 percent for the juvenile-onset, adolescent-onset and adult-onset obese alike. Parents of juvenile-onset (ages 5-9), adolescent-onset (10-19) and adult-onset obese (20-39) tend to be of above-average fatness level, +0.25Z scores, overall, regardless of the age at onset of obesity in their progeny. Except for the parents of the juvenile-onset obese, educational level of the parents tends to be below average for the sample as a whole. These new data acquired in longitudinal context and explored in retrospective-prospective fashion do not substantiate the notion that different onset ages of obesity indicate separate etiologies and different family constellations.
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109-0406.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Garn
authors.forename: T V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Hawthorne
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D004522:Educational Status; D005220:Fathers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D010290:Parents; D015995:Prevalence; D012885:Skinfold Thickness; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors