title: Excessive gain in body mass index-for-age Z-score and associated factors: a cohort study in female adolescents.
abstract: To evaluate the occurrence of excessive gain in body mass index-for-age Z-score (BMI/AZ) and its associated factors in adolescent girls.
  
  
  
  This is a cohort study conducted between 2007 and 2012 with 382 girls between 10 and 18 years of age attending public schools in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. Excessive gain in BMI/AZ (EGBMI/AZ) at follow-up was considered if the adolescent had a BMI/AZ >0.63 between follow-up and baseline.
  
  
  
  In 2007, 33.5% of girls were overweight, and at the end of the study this prevalence was 26.2%, with no statistically significant differences. Of the 382 girls evaluated in the cohort, 33% showed EGBMI/AZ. In 2007, 95% of these girls were normal weight or underweight, and in 2012, 60% were classified as overweight. After adjusting for possible confounding factors, three variables remained independently associated with EGBMI/AZ: underweight, normal weight and maternal overweight.
  
  
  
  Both underweight and normal weight were associated with EGBMI/AZ, and this could be due to a physiological protection for the occurrence of menarche. In fact, maternal overweight has considerable influence on adolescents' nutritional status because of exposure to an obesogenic environment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil.
authors.forename: M L D
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil.
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Cabral
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil.
authors.forename: I K G
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: de Arruda
authors.affiliation: Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: de Souza Holanda
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil.
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Diniz
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maio
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil.
authors.forename: P B P
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Coelho
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017195:Adolescent Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D039382:Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D009752:Nutritional Status; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015995:Prevalence; D013851:Thinness / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015430:Weight Gain