Tracking of Nutritional Status Between Childhood and Adolescence in Schoolchildren

Abstract

Introduction: In view of the growing prevalence of childhood excess weight and obesity In Brazil In recent decades, it is necessary to observe how this phenomenon occurs in the period of transition to adolescence. Objective: To verify the tracking of excess weight between childhood and adolescence in schoolchildren of both sexes. Methods: The study has a longitudinal design and the data used are part of a prospective study carried out from 2002 to 2005. Participants included 397 schoolchildren of both sexes (211 boys and 186 girls). The nutritional status was determined by the body mass index, and the participants were divided into the following groups: Normal Weight to Normal Weight, Normal Weight to Excess Weight, Excess Weight to Excess Weight, Excess Weight to Normal Weight. The tracking was analyzed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Kappa (k) index. Results: A significant difference (P <0.05) was observed between all variables (age and anthropometric indicators) between 2002 and 2005 for boys and girls. The ICC indicated tracking classified as high (ICC = 0.87) for the BMI values, and the tracking percentage showed that 87% of the subjects remained in the same category of normal weight and excess weight. The values of k = 0.68 show good tracking (P <0.001), indicating a strong maintenance of the subjects in the normal and excess weight categories. Conclusion: The tracking percentage was high, indicating that both boys and girls maintained the classification of excess weight during the period analyzed. Level of Evidence II; Lesser quality prospective study (eg, patients enrolled at different points in their disease or <80% followup).

Tracking of Anthropometric Characteristics From Childhood To Adolescence: An 8-Year Follow-Up Findings From The Czech ELSPAC Study

“…The ndings from a 12-year follow-up study in Slovenia showed high tracking of body-mass index from the age of 7 y to the age of 14 y (r=0.71 and 0.66 in boys and girls, respectively) [12]. However, previous evidence has presented larger tracking coe cients [15,17], compared to our results. The two Brazilian studies showed extremely high tracking characteristics of body-mass index of 0.94 [15] and 0.87 [17].…”

“…However, previous evidence has presented larger tracking coe cients [15,17], compared to our results. The two Brazilian studies showed extremely high tracking characteristics of body-mass index of 0.94 [15] and 0.87 [17]. The discrepancy between the studies may be explained by methodological differences, that is, children in studies by Ronque et al [15] and Prado et al [17] were followed-up for 3 y and 4 y, while our follow-up period was longer (8 y).…”

“…Tracking overweight and obesity from childhood to adolescence has been mainly the topic of Western and high-income countries, including Australia [14,27], United States of America [22], Norway [16,19], Finland [13], Iceland [20] and some middle-income countries, like Brazil [15,17] China [18] and Slovenia [12]. In general, body-mass index track well from childhood to adolescence, and even to adulthood [24].…”

“…The tracking is most often de ned as: (1) "a tendency of individuals to maintain their rank within a certain group over a period of time" [10] and (2) "the ability to predict future observations based on earlier values" [11]. It has been documented, that overweight and obesity (predominantly measured by bodymass index) track well from childhood to adolescence [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] and in some studies also into adulthood [21][22][23][24][25][26]. In general, a systematic review by Singh et al [24] has shown that overweight and obesity moderately track from childhood to adulthood.…”

“…Also, the comparison of studies is complicated by differences in study design, de nition of obesity and analytical methods used [28]. Most of the previous studies have used intraclass [15,17] or Pearson product-moment correlations [12,13,22] and odds/risk ratios [14,16,18] to determine the magnitude of tracking during a follow-up period. In recent years, more appropriate statistical methods have been developed and integrated to explore the tracking characteristics of anthropometric data.…”