Birth weight of a child and the occurrence of overweight and obesity in preschool and school age birth weight and overweight in children

Abstract

Objective

Increasingly, studies say that both too low and excessive birth weight increase the risk of developing obesity. The study aimed to check whether there is a relationship between birth weight and the occurrence of overweight and parents' body weight in children aged 5, 10, and 15 y.

Methods

Out of 601 participants, 297 (51,2% ♀) were qualified for analysis, meeting the inclusion criteria for the study group. Participants were divided by their age at the time of the study into Group I (n=80 [51,2% ♀]) – aged 5 y old, Group II (n = 113 [51,6% ♀]) – 10 y, and Group III (n = 93 [50,5% ♀]) – 15 y. Birth data were obtained from the respondents as well as parental data - body mass and height, body mass index (BMI). Body mass was determined using a MC-780 body composition analyzer. Based on the information obtained, the occurrence of body weight abnormalities in children was determined according to percentile charts taking into account age and in the case of the parents' sex, the simplified World Health Organization (WHO) classification was used. The significance of the responses was estimated based on chi-square tests. Intergroup comparisons were made using the Kruskal-Wallis test.

Results

The relationship between data was determined using the Spearman's rank correlation test. The level of statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. The relationship between anthropometric data at the time of birth and at the time of examination in comparison to the parents was examined. Statistically significant correlations were found between birth weight and anthropometric values and BMI at the time of examination of children and their parents.

Conclusion

The child's birth weight correlates with the children's anthropometric values, but with age its importance decreases and the importance of the parents' weight increases.