BIRTH
WEIGHT AND CHILDHOOD OBESITY
Li H, Yv Y, Xia X-L, Tong F
Capital
Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, China
Objective: To study the relationship between birth weight and childhood
obesity.
Methods: The data
collected from a cross-sectional survey for childhood obesity which was
conduced in Beijing urban city 2000. 10221 school children aged 6-8 years
as subjects of the survey. Height and weight were measured. The information
on birth weight, delivery history, early feeding, parental height and weight
came from the parent questionnaire. The weight for height of NCHS/WHO was
used as the reference for being overweight (≥110%
of median) or obese(≥120% of median). Growth status
and the prevalence of obesity were compared for 500-g birth weight
categories from 1,000g to 5,500g.
Results: The
prevalence of obesity among children who weighed under 2500g at birth
(n=220) was 12.7% , 14.7% for the 2500 to 3999g(n=8116) and rising to 23.3%
for the 4000 to 5500g birth weight group(n=888). Among the various birth
weight groups, the highest prevalence of obesity is 23.9% in 4000 to 4999g
group and the lowest is 11.8% in 2500 to 2999g group. In 1500 to 2499g
birth weight group, 60.7% obese children were premature. Similar results
were found with the prevalence of being overweight.
Conclusion:
Higher birth weight is a risk factor for
childhood obesity. The premature infants with low birth weight are likely
to be obese in childhood as compared with those children who were
intrauterine growth retardation.