A longitudinal study of body fatness in childhoodand adolescence

Continuity of leanness/obesity from childhood to adolescence.

“…It is to be expected (Roche 1981) that closer anthropometric parameters will be obtained from the same individuals when the span in time between two measurements is shorter, as confirmed by Dine et al (1979), Webber et al (1983) and Freedman et al (1987). Thus, persistence of the obesity-related parameters have been reported by various authors (Fisch et al 1975;Johnston and Mack 1978;Dine et al 1979;Zack et al 1979;Frerichs et al 1979;Webber et al 1983;Kramer et al 1985) in studies in which subjects (mostly neonates or school children) were examined over a period of 5 years or less, although it was also reported that the adiposity observed in early infancy will not predict the adiposity in childhood (Shapiro et al 1984;Berkowitz et al 1985).…”

“…It is also known through clinical experiences that obesity is often resistant to treatment (Stunkard 1958), and improvement in clinical effectiveness of weight reduction therapy is still limited (Wing and Jeffery 1979) ; factors involved in the development of obesity include not only energy intake and consumption, but various socio-economic factors (Garn et al 1979; Annest et al 1983; Stunkard et al 1986;Rolland-Cachera et al 1988). Intensive discussion has been continuing on changes and persistence of obesity in life with reference to the possibility of clinical intervention, and findings have been presented in support of (e.g., Wilson et al 1969; Rimm and Rimm 1976;Zack et al 1979; Stark et al 1981;Freedman et al 1987) and against (e.g., Garn et al 1984; Shapiro et al 1984;Garn 1985a) the hypothesis that obese children tend to become obese adults. Longitudinal large-scale studies on the body habitus of the same individuals are, however, limited in the literature (Zack et al 1979;Garn and LaVelle 1985;Freedman et al 1987).…”

“…Intensive discussion has been continuing on changes and persistence of obesity in life with reference to the possibility of clinical intervention, and findings have been presented in support of (e.g., Wilson et al 1969; Rimm and Rimm 1976;Zack et al 1979; Stark et al 1981;Freedman et al 1987) and against (e.g., Garn et al 1984; Shapiro et al 1984;Garn 1985a) the hypothesis that obese children tend to become obese adults. Longitudinal large-scale studies on the body habitus of the same individuals are, however, limited in the literature (Zack et al 1979;Garn and LaVelle 1985;Freedman et al 1987). In the present study, height and weight of nearly 2000 young people at ages 11, 14 and 18 were examined to elucidate the extent of the difficulties for obese or lean children in attaining normal body habitus at their adolescent days.…”

Prevalência de sobrepeso e obesidade em escolares de alto nível socioeconômico em Londrina, Paraná, Brasil

“…Esse fato fortalece a hipótese de que um adolescente obeso possa ser identificado ainda na infância, uma vez que uma criança obesa na infância pode apresentar entre 68% e 77% de probabilidade de permanecer obesa durante a adolescência 28 .…”

Energy intake in early infancy and childhood fatness

“…Several studies have shown that while not all fat infants are fat in later life, they have an increased risk of being so in comparison to normal weight infants. 1,2,4,5 Furthermore, greater risk of cardiovascular disease in adults is not limited to obese subjects, and is increased when body weight is at the high end of the`normal' range. 6 This indicates that early factors in¯uencing later fatness may be equally important in fatter subjects who have not actually become obese.…”