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Childhood IQ in relation to obesity and weight gain in adult life: the National Child Development (1958) Study

International Journal of Obesity volume 30, pages 1422–1432 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective:

To examine the relation of childhood intelligence (IQ) test results with obesity in middle age and weight gain across the life course.

Methods:

We analysed data from the National Child Development (1958) Study, a prospective cohort study of 17 414 births to parents residing in Great Britain in the late 1950s. Childhood IQ was measured at age 11 years and body mass index (BMI), an indicator of adiposity, was assessed at 16, 23, 33 and 42 years of age. Logistic regression (in which BMI was categorised into obese and non-obese) and structural equation growth curve models (in which BMI was retained as a continuous variable) were used to estimate the relation between childhood IQ and adult obesity, and childhood IQ and weight gain, respectively.

Results:

In unadjusted analyses, lower childhood IQ scores were associated with an increased prevalence of adult obesity at age 42 years. This relation was somewhat stronger in women (ORper SD decrease in IQ score [95% CI]: 1.38 [1.26, 1.50]) than men (1.26 [1.15, 1.38]). This association remains statistically significant after adjusting for childhood characteristics, including socio-economic factors, but was heavily attenuated following control for adult characteristics, particularly education (women: 1.11 [0.99, 1.25]; men: 1.10 [0.98, 1.23]). When weight gain between age 16 and 42 years was the outcome of interest, structural equation modelling revealed that education and dietary characteristics in adult life mediated the association with childhood IQ.

Conclusions:

A lower IQ score in childhood is associated with obesity and weight gain in adulthood. In the present study, this relation appears to be largely mediated via educational attainment and the adoption of healthy diets in later life.

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Acknowledgements

The data reported herein were made available through the ESRC Data Archive. Data collection was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council; the Department of Health; the Department of Social Security; the Department of Employment; the Training Agency; the Department of Education and Science; the Department of the Environment; the Transport and Road Research Laboratory; Health and Safety Executive; the National Institute for Child Health and Development, US; the Department for Education and Employment; the Manpower Services Commission; and the National Birthday Trust Fund. The data were collected by the Social and Community Planning Research, NOP Market Research Limited and Research Surveys of Great Britain. The original data producers were the National Birthday Trust Fund, National Children's Bureau and City University Social Statistics Research Unit. The agencies responsible for funding the data collection or its archiving bear no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK

    T Chandola

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    I J Deary & G D Batty

  3. Department of Primary Care and Social Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK

    D Blane

  4. MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    G D Batty

Authors
  1. T Chandola
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  2. I J Deary
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to G D Batty.

Appendices

Appendix A1

Inter-variable correlations are given in Table A1.

Table a1 Correlations above the diagonal refer to women; below the diagonal refer to men
Full size table

Appendix B1

Estimates and goodness of fit for the growth model of weight gain (measured by BMI at ages 16–42 years) for men and women are given in Table B1.

Table 6 Table b1
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Chandola, T., Deary, I., Blane, D. et al. Childhood IQ in relation to obesity and weight gain in adult life: the National Child Development (1958) Study. Int J Obes 30, 1422–1432 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803279

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