Food, activity and family—environmental vs biochemical predictors of weight gain in children

• Published in: European journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 57; no. 10; pp. 1242 - 1249
• Main Authors: Bogaert, N, Steinbeck, K S, Baur, L A, Brock, K, Bermingham, M A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.10.2003; Nature Publishing; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Body fat; Body Mass Index; Body size; Body weight gain; Calorimetry, Indirect; Child; Children; Children & youth; Cholesterol; Clinical Nutrition; Cohort Studies; descriptive studies; Diet; Energy expenditure; Energy Intake; Energy Metabolism; Environment; Epidemiology; Exercise; Families & family life; fathers; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Food; girls; hospitals; Human physiology applied to population studies and life conditions. Human ecophysiology; Humans; Internal Medicine; Leisure Activities; Life Style; Lipids; Lipids - blood; Low density lipoprotein; low density lipoprotein cholesterol; Male; Medical research; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic Diseases; mothers; Nutritional survey. Food supply and nutritional requirement; Obesity - etiology; Obesity - metabolism; original-communication; Parents; Prospective Studies; Public Health; Television; Weight; weight gain; Weight Gain - physiology; Weight gain measurement; weight; lipids; children; dietary composition; physical activity; Physical exercise; Human; Family study; Activity; Lipids; Child; Weight gain; Weight; Food
• ISSN: 0954-3007; 1476-5640
• DOI: 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601677

Objective : To identify whether measures of energy intake and expenditure predict excessive weight gain over time in children and to describe how these measures relate to similar measures in parents. Design : Prospective, descriptive study over 12 months with no intervention. Setting : University teaching hospital. Subjects : Children aged between 6.0 and 9.0 y. Recruitment was through advertisement. A total of 59 children (30 F), 41 mothers and 29 fathers. In all, 41 (69%) of the children were reviewed at 12 months (20 F). Results : No significant correlations were identified between body mass index (BMI) z -score change in children over 12 months for any dietary variable or for any measures of energy expenditure, including hours of television viewing or percent time spent in low-, moderate- or high-intensity activity. The BMI z -score change over 12 months was significantly correlated with LDL cholesterol and Apo B/ApoA-1 ratio, independent of percent body fat ( r= 0.45, P =0.01; r= 0.37, P =0.03). A significant positive correlation was found for mothers and girls for percent time in moderate to high activity ( r= 0.44, P =0.03) and between fathers and children for percent time spent in low activity ( r= 0.43, P =0.005). Conclusions : The study has been unable to identify environmental predictors that indicate propensity to faster weight gain over time in this cohort of children, but has extended the evidence on lifestyle-influenced biochemical predictors that do. An overall lack of vigorous activity in this age group, and correlations between parental and child activity and inactivity have been identified. Sponsorship : The Australian Rotary Health Foundation, The Financial Markets Foundation for Children, The National Health and Medical Research Council.