Predicting Obesity in Young Adulthood from Childhood and Parental Obesity

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 337; no. 13; pp. 869 - 873
• Main Authors: Whitaker, Robert C, Wright, Jeffrey A, Pepe, Margaret S, Seidel, Kristy D, Dietz, William H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, MA Massachusetts Medical Society 25.09.1997
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age; Age Factors; Biological and medical sciences; Body Mass Index; Child; Child, Preschool; Cohort Studies; Female; Health maintenance organizations; HMOs; Humans; Infant; Male; Medical sciences; Metabolic diseases; Obesity; Obesity - etiology; Obesity - genetics; Odds Ratio; Parents; Parents & parenting; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors; Weight control; Human; Obesity; Parent; Nutrition disorder; Young adult; Predictive factor; Child; Nutritional status
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199709253371301

The prevalence of obesity has increased in both children and adults. 1 , 2 The medical illnesses associated with obesity 3 usually occur in adulthood, but adults rarely achieve sustained weight loss. 4 Therefore, prevention of obesity in childhood and effective treatment of overweight children are essential. Although several studies have tracked fatness from childhood to adulthood, 5 – 11 only one study contained data on subjects' height and weight throughout childhood. 11 Whether parental obesity alters the probability that a child will become an obese adult is not known. The purpose of this study was to determine the probability of obesity in young adulthood in relation . . .