title: Early-life weight and weight gain as predictors of obesity in Brazilian adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test whether weight and the weight gain rate during different age periods are associated with being overweight/obese at 10 years of age.
  
  
  METHODS
  A nested case-control study was performed in a clinical historic cohort that was selected based on medical records from the Albert Einstein Hospital Social Program in São Paulo, Brazil. A sample of 378 eutrophic and overweight/obese children was analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After adjusting for birth weight and gestational age, the likelihood of being overweight/obese at 10 years of age was 4.04-fold greater when progressing from one quartile of weight gain to the immediately superior quartile in the first semester of life and 3.24-fold greater when this occurred from 2-5 years of age. A one-quartile change in weight gain in the first semester was associated with a 0.5 z-score increase in BMI at age 10. A robust independent effect of weight at age 5 confirmed that earlier weight gain was an important predictor.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The amount of weight gain during the first 6 months of life and between 2 and 5 years of age and weight at age 5 were important predictors of overweight/obesity at 10 years of age.
authors.affiliation: Instituto da Criança, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, São PauloSP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Maria Teresa Bechere
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.forename: Alexandre Archanjo
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Ferraro
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pires
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schvartsman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001724:Birth Weight; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D015430:Weight Gain / Q000502:physiology*