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Effects of body size and change in body size from infancy through childhood on body mass index in adulthood

International Journal of Obesity volume 38, pages 1305–1311 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background:

Weight and weight gain throughout infancy are related to later obesity, but whether the strength of the associations varies during the infancy period is uncertain.

Aims:

Our aims were to identify the period of infancy when change in body weight has the strongest association with adult body mass index (BMI) and also the extent to which these associations during infancy are mediated through childhood BMI.

Methods:

The Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort, in which participants were followed from birth through 42 years of age, provided information on weight at 12 months and BMI at 42 years for 1633 individuals. Information on weight at birth, 2 weeks, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 months was retrieved from health visitors’ records and information on BMI at ages 7 and 13 years from school health records. The associations of infant weight and weight gain standard deviation scores (SDS) with adult BMI-SDS were analyzed using multiple linear regression and path analysis.

Results:

Higher-weight-SDS at all ages from birth to an age 12 months were associated with higher-BMI-SDS at 42 years (regression coefficients 0.08–0.12). Infant weight gain-SDS was associated with greater BMI-SDS at 42 years only between birth and 3 months (0.09, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.04, 0.15) driven by an association between 2 and 3 months (0.12, 95% CI: 0.04, 0.20). The latter was partly mediated through later BMI in the path analysis. Infant weight gain-SDS between 3 and 12 months was not associated with greater BMI-SDS at 42 years.

Conclusions:

Faster weight gain during only the first 3 months of infancy was associated with increased adult BMI, although not in a consistent monthly pattern. Adult BMI is more sensitive to high weight gain during early infancy than late infancy, but not specifically to the first month of life.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the collection of the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort data led by the late Drs Aage Willumsen and Bengt Zachau-Christiansen. We thank Helga Kvistgaard for assistance with the infant health visitor records data, current and former infant health visitors Charlotte Westerlin Nielsen, Ruth Lewkowitz, Inga Axelsen, Anna Grosen, Elisabeth Olsson and Birte Sørensen for information about the infant health visitors’ system in the 1960s, and Claus Holst and Michael Gamborg for advice on statistical analysis. This study received support from the Danish Heart Foundation, the Rosalie Petersen’s Foundation, the Aase and Ejner Danielsen’s Foundation, the Lundbeck Foundation (R13-A1317), the Danish PhD School of Molecular Metabolism, the University of Copenhagen, the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Capital region of Denmark. This work was carried out as a part of the research program of the Danish Obesity Research Center (DanORC). DanORC is supported by the Danish Council for Strategic Research (grant 2101–06–0005).

Author Contributions

The authors' responsibilities were as follows: TIAS initiated the research; TIAS, JLB, KFM, LGB and KMR designed the research; TIAS and ELM provided the data; AS constructed databases; LGB conducted the analyses and drafted the paper. All authors read, commented on and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Preventive Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

    L G Bjerregaard, E L Mortensen, J L Baker & T I A Sørensen

  2. Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA,

    K M Rasmussen

  3. Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    K F Michaelsen

  4. Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    A Skytthe

  5. Institute of Public Health and Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark,

    E L Mortensen

  6. Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    J L Baker & T I A Sørensen

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  1. L G Bjerregaard
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Correspondence to L G Bjerregaard.

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Bjerregaard, L., Rasmussen, K., Michaelsen, K. et al. Effects of body size and change in body size from infancy through childhood on body mass index in adulthood. Int J Obes 38, 1305–1311 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2014.108

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2014.108

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