Prenatal compared with parental origins of adolescent fatness.
BACKGROUND
Differences in prenatal growth influence postnatal body fat.


OBJECTIVE
The objective was to investigate the role of parental body composition on the "tracking" of adolescent fatness.


METHODS
The study population consisted of 1993 white subjects and their parents. Measurements were taken at birth and again at the age of either 15, 16, or 17 y. The newborns were classified in 3 groups: small for gestational age, appropriate for gestational age, and large for gestational age. The mothers and fathers of the adolescents were classified into low and high subgroups on the basis of measurements of body mass index (BMI). Similarly, the mothers of the adolescents were classified into lean and fat subgroups on the basis of measurements of triceps skinfold thickness.


RESULTS
Heavy newborns became heavier or fatter adolescents only when the mother or father was also fat and, among heavy newborns, the risk of becoming fat adolescents was approximately 5.7 times higher when the mother was fat rather than lean.


CONCLUSIONS
Large newborns become fat adolescents only when the mother or father is also overweight or fat (ie, has either a high BMI or large skinfold thickness). These findings suggest that fatness during adolescence is related to parental fatness but not to prenatal fatness. Therefore, preventing higher levels of adiposity among newborns is unlikely to reduce overall adiposity in adolescence.
Frisancho
A R
AR
Center for Human Growth and Development and the Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 481090, USA. arfrisan@umich.edu
D000293:Adolescent; D001724:Birth Weight; D001823:Body Composition / Q000235:genetics*; D001824:Body Constitution; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000235:genetics; D012307:Risk Factors; D012885:Skinfold Thickness