Racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic differences in the incidence of obesity related to childbirth.
OBJECTIVE
We investigated the relationship between childbirth and 5-year incidence of obesity.


METHODS
We performed a prospective analysis of data on 2923 nonobese, nonpregnant women aged 14 to 22 years from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Cohort, which was followed from 1980 to 1990. We used multivariable logistic regression analyses to determine the adjusted relative risk of obesity for mothers 5 years after childbirth compared with women who did not have children.


RESULTS
The 5-year incidence of obesity was 11.3 per 100 parous women, compared with 4.5 per 100 nulliparous women (relative risk [RR] = 3.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.4, 4.9; P < .001). The 5-year incidence of obesity was 8.6 for primiparous women (RR = 2.8; 95% CI = 1.5, 5.0) and 12.2 for multiparous women (RR = 3.8; 95% CI = 2.6, 5.6). Among parous women, White women had the lowest obesity incidence (9.1 per 100 vs 15.1 per 100 for African Americans and 12.5 per 100 for Hispanics).


CONCLUSIONS
Parous women have a higher incidence of obesity than do nulliparous women, and minority women have a higher incidence of parity-related obesity than do White women. Thus, efforts to reduce obesity should target postpartum women and minority women who give birth.
Davis
Esa M
EM
Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, and the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA. esa.davis@case.edu
Zyzanski
Stephen J
SJ
Olson
Christine M
CM
Stange
Kurt C
KC
Horwitz
Ralph I
RI
D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009035:Mothers; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology*; D036801:Parturition; D011446:Prospective Studies; D044469:Racial Groups; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult