• Magazine
    • Past Issues
    • Subscribe
    • Change Mailing Address
    • Surveys
    • Guidelines for Authors
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Editorial Deadlines
  • Practice
    • Business Tips
    • Chiropractic Schools
    • Clinical & Technique
    • eBooks
    • eCourses
    • Infographics
    • Quizzes
    • Wellness & Nutrition
    • Personal Growth
    • Podcast
  • Resource Centers
  • Products & Services
    • Buyer’s Guide
    • Products Directory
    • Submit a Product
    • Vendor Login
  • Datebook
    • Become an Events Poster
    • Post an Event
    • View Events
  • Jobs
    • Jobs
    • Post a Job
  • Advertise
    • Advertising Information
    • Media Kit
    • Contact Us
    • Upload Advertising

Your Online Chiropractic Community

Chiropractic Economics Your Online Chiropractic Community
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • News
  • Webinars
  • Chiropractic Research
  • Students
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Study: Future obesity can may be predicted at 3.5 years of age

Chiropractic Economics November 14, 2011

Researchers can predict which children are most likely to become obese by examining their mothers’ behaviour around their birth, according to a recent University of Montreal study published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. “Although behaviour is extremely hard to change and is also influenced by a complex tangle of influencing factors in the environment, I hope these findings will help improve the social and medical services we offer to mothers and infants,” said lead author Laura Pryor, a PhD candidate at the university’s Department of Social and Preventive Medicine. The findings come as the province of Quebec, like other societies, grapples with a surge in childhood obesity over the last generation.

Pryor and the study team, led by Sylvana Côté, analyzed data drawn from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development that ran from 1998 to 2006. Quebec is fortunate in that it is able to offer scientists this kind of data, enabling them to look at how a situation evolves over time. Scientists studying this kind of phenomena in other areas must often rely on cross-sectional studies that are based on data collected at a specific time for a specific purpose. The team focused on 1,957 children whose height and weight measurements had been taken yearly, from the age of five months to eight years old, and recorded in a database.

This information enabled the team to look at the development of the children’s body mass index (BMI). BMI is calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. The researchers identified three trajectory groups: children with low but stable BMI, children with moderate BMI, and children whose BMI was elevated and rising, called high-rising BMI.

“We discovered the trajectories of all three groups were similar until the children were about two and a half,” Pryor said. “Around that point the BMIs of the high-rising group of children began to take off. By the time these children moved into middle childhood, more than 50 per cent of them were obese according to international criteria.”

Researchers found two factors that may explain this: the mothers’ weight around the time they gave birth and whether the mothers smoked. A child with a mother who was overweight or who smoked during pregnancy was significantly more likely to be in the high-rising group. These two factors were found to be much more important than the other criteria that were studied, such as the child’s birth weight.

The risk factors identified here represent increased probabilities of becoming overweight, not direct causes. More research will be required to determine how these early-life factors and others are correlated with childhood obesity. “Our research adds to the growing evidence that the perinatal environment has an important influence on later obesity,” Pryor said. “This points to the need for early interventions with at-risk families in order to prevent the development of childhood weight problems and the intergenerational transmission of ill health. I would like to conduct further studies to find out what happens to these kids once they reach adolescence, and I hope that my research will help in the development of strategies to combat this serious public health issue.”

Related Posts

  • Study identifies genes common in childhood obesityStudy identifies genes common in childhood obesity
  • Vitamin D with calcium shown to reduce mortality in elderlyVitamin D with calcium shown to reduce mortality in elderly
  • Study Finds Personal and Web-Based Support Equal Weight Loss SuccessStudy Finds Personal and Web-Based Support Equal Weight Loss Success
  • Disability increasing among older obese individualsDisability increasing among older obese individuals
  • Weight management program reduces medical costs and improves healthWeight management program reduces medical costs and improves health
  • Slowing aging? It might take more than antioxidantsSlowing aging? It might take more than antioxidants

Filed Under: News, Nutrition Supplements News

Current Issue

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube logoYouTube logoYouTube

820 A1A N Highway W18,

Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082

Phone 904.285.6020

Fax 904.395.9118

CONTACT US »

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Copyright © 2021, All Rights Reserved

SUBSCRIBE TO THE MAGAZINE

Get Chiropractic Economics magazine
delivered to your home or office. Just
fill out our form to request your FREE
subscription for 20 issues a year,
including two annual Buyers Guides.

SUBSCRIBE NOW »

Latest Chiropractic News

  • Sherman College named school of national service by AmeriCorps
    Sherman College logo
  • New Mentor Program for Black Hemp Farmers Announced by CBD Leader Charlotte’s Web
  • Foot Levelers announces new orthotic training sessions, speakers