Postnatal weight and height growth velocities at different ages between birth and 5 y and body composition in adolescent boys and girls.
BACKGROUND
Rapid weight gain in the first years of life is associated with adult obesity. Whether there are critical windows for this long-term effect is unclear.


OBJECTIVE
The objective was to study anthropometric measures in adolescence by sex according to weight and height growth velocities at different ages between birth and 5 y.


METHODS
Anthropometric measures, including fat and fat-free mass by bipodal impedancemetry, were measured in 468 adolescents aged 8-17 y. We retrospectively collected early infancy data and individually estimated weight and height growth velocities in 69.4% of them using a mathematical model. Associations between birth variables, growth velocities, and anthropometric measures in adolescence were studied.


RESULTS
Weight growth velocity at 3 mo was associated with overweight (odds ratio for a 1-SD increase: 1.52; 95% CI: 1.04, 2.22), fat mass, and waist circumference in adolescence in both sexes and with fat-free mass in boys (r = 0.29, P < 0.001) but not in girls (r = -0.01, NS). Weight growth velocities after 2 y were associated with all anthropometric measures in adolescence, in both sexes. Between 6 mo and 2 y, weight growth velocities were significantly associated only with adolescent height in boys; in girls, associations with fat mass in adolescence were weaker.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results support the hypothesis of 2 critical windows in early childhood associated with the later risk of obesity: up to 6 mo and from 2 y onward. The study of the determinants of growth during these 2 periods is of major importance for the prevention of obesity in adolescence.
INSERM, Unit 780, Villejuif, France. botton@vjf.inserm.fr
Jérémie
J
Botton
Barbara
B
Heude
Jean
J
Maccario
Pierre
P
Ducimetière
Marie-Aline
MA
Charles
D000293:Adolescent; D000886:Anthropometry; D001823:Body Composition; D001827:Body Height; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015430:Weight Gain / Q000502:physiology