title: Association between parity and obesity patterns in a middle-aged and older Chinese population: a cross-sectional analysis in the Tongji-Dongfeng cohort study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Higher parity has been implicated as a risk factor for obesity of women. The objective of the study was to examine whether parity was associated with general obesity or abdominal obesity, or both, among middle-aged and older Chinese women.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 12,829 Chinese women (mean age: 64.8 years) with at least one live birth were selected from the Dongfeng-Tongji Cohort Study (phase II). We used body mass index to assess general obesity, and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and waist circumference (WC) to assess abdominal obesity. We used multivariate linear and logistic regression models to investigate the association between parity and obesity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The values of all four obesity measures increased with the greater number of live births (Pfor trend <0.001). After adjustment for potential confounders, women with four or more children had 1.72 times (95 % confidence interval [CI], 1.41-2.10) higher risk of general obesity, and 1.93 (95 % CI, 1.57-2.37), 2.09 (95 % CI, 1.65-3.64) and 1.58 (95 % CI, 1.28-1.94) times risk of abdominal obesity assessed by WHR, WHtR and WC, respectively. Furthermore, we observed an ascending gradient between parity and the three abdominal obesity measures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Parity was positively associated with risk of obesity, especially abdominal obesity, in the long term among Chinese women.
authors: School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Hangkong Road 13, Wuhan, 430030 China.
authors: Wending
authors: W
authors: Li
authors: School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Hangkong Road 13, Wuhan, 430030 China.
authors: Yi
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Hangkong Road 13, Wuhan, 430030 China ; Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors: Lijun
authors: L
authors: Shen
authors: Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors: Lulu
authors: L
authors: Song
authors: Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors: Hui
authors: H
authors: Li
authors: Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors: Bingqing
authors: B
authors: Liu
authors: Ministry of Education Key Lab for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors: Jing
authors: J
authors: Yuan
authors: Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China ; Ministry of Education Key Lab for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors: Youjie
authors: Y
authors: Wang
keywords: Abdominal obesity; Childbirth; Chinese; General obesity; Parity