Implications of childhood obesity for adult health: findings from thousand families cohort study.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether being overweight in childhood increases adult obesity and risk of disease.


METHODS
Prospective cohort study.


METHODS
City of Newcastle upon Tyne.


METHODS
932 members of thousand families 1947 birth cohort, of whom 412 attended for clinical examination age 50.


METHODS
Blood pressure; carotid artery intima-media thickness; fibrinogen concentration; total, low density lipoprotein, and high density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations; triglyceride concentration; fasting insulin and 2 hour glucose concentrations; body mass index; and percentage body fat.


RESULTS
Body mass index at age 9 years was significantly correlated with body mass index age 50 (r=0.24, P<0.001) but not with percentage body fat age 50 (r=0.10, P=0.07). After adult body mass index had been adjusted for, body mass index at age 9 showed a significant inverse association with measures of lipid and glucose metabolism in both sexes and with blood pressure in women. However, after adjustment for adult percentage fat instead of body mass index, only the inverse associations with triglycerides (regression coefficient= -0.21, P<0.01) and total cholesterol (-0.17, P<0.05) in women remained significant.


CONCLUSIONS
Little tracking from childhood overweight to adulthood obesity was found when using a measure of fatness that was independent of build. Only children who were obese at 13 showed an increased risk of obesity as adults. No excess adult health risk from childhood or teenage overweight was found. Being thin in childhood offered no protection against adult fatness, and the thinnest children tended to have the highest adult risk at every level of adult obesity.
Wright
C M
CM
University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, NE8 1EB, UK. C.M.Wright@Newcastle.ac.uk
Parker
L
L
Lamont
D
D
Craft
A W
AW
D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000473:pathology; D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008055:Lipids / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012923:Social Class
D001786:Blood Glucose; D008055:Lipids