Predictors of favorable growth patterns during the obesity epidemic among US school children. Clin Pediatr (Phila) 2015 May;54(5):458-68
Date
02/18/2015Pubmed ID
25686842Pubmed Central ID
PMC4834888DOI
10.1177/0009922815570579Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84926611779 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 12 CitationsAbstract
OBJECTIVE: To report the prevalence of favorable growth patterns, including healthy weight maintenance (HWM) and return to healthy weight (RHW) among US school-age children.
METHODS: A longitudinal analysis of childhood growth patterns from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort was completed (n = 9416). The primary outcome included describing the prevalence of HWM/RHW patterns using consecutive child growth data from kindergarten to fifth grades. Multivariate logistic regression was used to explore predictors of HWM/RHW. Incidence of RHW is calculated by grade level.
RESULTS: Seventy percent (n = 6617) of children enter kindergarten at a healthy weight and approximately 70% maintained a healthy weight through fifth grade. Among overweight/obese kindergartners, only 17.1% outgrew their weight risk (RHW) by fifth grade.
CONCLUSIONS: Fewer than 1 in 5 at-risk children outgrow their weight risk during school-age yet a majority of healthy weight children can maintain healthy weight during a critical growth period. Future work should explore additional socioecologic factors associated with favorable growth.
Author List
Hernandez RG, Marcell AV, Garcia J, Amankwah EK, Cheng TLAuthor
Ernest Amankwah PhD Director, Associate Professor in the Clinical and Translational Science Institute department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Body Mass IndexBody Weight
Child
Cohort Studies
Epidemics
Female
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Pediatric Obesity
Prevalence
Risk Factors
United States
