Distinct age‐related patterns of overweight development to guide school healthcare interventions

Abstract

Aim We aimed to identify groups of primary school children with similar overweight development, reveal age‐related patterns of overweight development in the resulting groups and analyse overweight‐related school healthcare interventions. Methods This retrospective longitudinal register study utilised electronic health records from six primary school years. From a random sample of 2000 sixth graders, we derived a study cohort of 508 children meeting criteria for overweight at least once during primary school. We investigated how many different groups (latent classes) of children with similar weight development would emerge by applying flexible latent class mixed models on body mass index standard deviation score. We also explored the resulting groups with respect to offered overweight‐related interventions. Results Per child, the data consisted in median 7 growth measurements over 5.4 years. We identified five overweight development groups for girls and four for boys. The groups converged temporarily around age 10 after which only some continued into obesity. School nurses and physicians offered overweight‐related interventions to children with obesity, less to children gaining weight or with overweight. Conclusion Obesity prevention might benefit from awareness of typical overweight development patterns when designing intervention studies or planning and timing multidisciplinary school health check programmes.

Development, implementation and early results of a 12‐week web‐based intervention targeting 51 children age 5–13 years and their families

“…Longitudinal data from children born 1997–1999 in Sweden show that children with overweight or obesity at five years of age tend to remain living with overweight or obesity later in childhood 5 . However, there is also considerable new development of obesity 2,4,6 . Early interventions targeting children with obesity 5–13 years of age serve as attractive opportunities for promoting a healthy lifestyle aiming at reducing future risk of obesity and associated health risks.…”

Associations between study questionnaire-assessed need and school doctor-evaluated benefit of routine health checks: an observational study

“…Nurses wished that the school doctor would address their concerns regarding over half of the children in grades one and five, which is surprisingly high. Children in other grades rarely meet a school doctor even when they have special health care needs, for example, related to overweight or obesity [ 27 ]. However, many health problems would be most efficiently detected and managed in the school [ 28 , 3 ].…”

Maternal weight, smoking, and diabetes provided early predictors of longitudinal body mass index growth patterns in childhood

“…Traditionally the factors affecting the development of BMI have been studied cross‐sectionally 2,3,7,13 . However, examining BMI trajectories is an opportunity to understand better longitudinal growth patterns and related factors 9,14–17 …”

“…2,3,7,13 However, examining BMI trajectories is an opportunity to understand better longitudinal growth patterns and related factors. 9,[14][15][16][17] Our previous longitudinal growth study identified two BMI trajectories that predicted the development of overweight in early childhood. These were a stable high or low BMI at birth and excessive weight gain after the adiposity rebound.…”