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Food, activity and family—environmental vs biochemical predictors of weight gain in children
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 te...
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Published in: | European journal of clinical nutrition 2003-10, Vol.57 (10), p.1242-1249 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | 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. |
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ISSN: | 0954-3007 1476-5640 |
DOI: | 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601677 |