title: Overweight in infancy: which pre- and perinatal factors determine overweight persistence or reduction? A birth cohort followed for 11 years.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A considerable proportion of children with early-life overweight attain a normal weight. To recognize infants at risk of persistent overweight, we compared early-life factors of children with a longitudinal pattern of persistent overweight to children with a pattern of overweight in early but not in later childhood.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 3,550 children participating in a birth cohort that started in 1996/1997 in the Netherlands, body mass index was repeatedly assessed until age 11 and dichotomized into with/without overweight. Latent class growth modeling was used to distinguish trajectories. Our analysis was focused on the comparison of early-life factors in children in a persistent overweight pattern with those in an overweight reduction pattern using multivariable log-binomial regression analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children (n = 133) in the persistent overweight pattern were more likely to have overweight parents [relative risk (RR)mother: 1.85, 95% CI: 1.37-2.49: RRfather: 1.75, 95% CI: 1.21-2.55] than children in the overweight reduction pattern (n = 303). Maternal education, child's gender, ethnicity, birth weight, breast-feeding and maternal smoking during pregnancy did not differ between the trajectories.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Health care practitioners should focus on high-weight infants with overweight parents, as these children are less likely to resolve their overweight.
authors.affiliation: Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Lenie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: van Rossem
authors.forename: Alet H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Wijga
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brunekreef
authors.forename: Johan C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: de Jongste
authors.forename: Marjan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kerkhof
authors.forename: Dirkje S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Postma
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gehring
authors.forename: Henriëtte A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Smit
mesh_terms: D001724:Birth Weight; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009426:Netherlands; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018743:Perinatal Care; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors