Maternal pre-pregnancy weight and early childhood weight associated with obesity in adolescence

Maternal pre-pregnancy weight and early childhood weight associated with obesity in adolescence

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Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor)Jan 8 2020

Excess weight at age 3 years was associated with a higher risk of being overweight or obese at age 15 years in a study of adolescents in Japan.

In the Pediatric Obesity study of 1,581 mother-child pairs, pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity in mothers was also a strong predictor of overweight/obesity at age 15 years in children.

After adjustments, being overweight or obese at age 3 years was linked with a more than 4.2-times higher risk of overweight/obesity at age 15 years, and overweight/obesity in mothers was linked with a more than 2.4-times higher risk. Investigators did not find an association between birth weight and overweight/obesity during adolescence.

Because family members often share a common lifestyle, interventions for parents and children may be necessary to prevent obesity in adolescents."

Satomi Yoshida, PhD, first author, Kyoto University

Source:

Wiley

Journal reference:

Yoshida, S., et al. (2020) Association of maternal prepregnancy weight and early childhood weight with obesity in adolescence: A population‐based longitudinal cohort study in Japan. Pediatric Obesity. doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12597.