Tracking of thinness and overweight in children of Dutch, Turkish, Moroccan and South Asian descent from 3 through 15 years of age: a historical cohort study.

J A de Wilde, Bjc Middelkoop, P H Verkerk

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Article in International journal of obesity (2005), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

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6citing papers in PubMed

1.6field-weighted citation impact, top 16% of its field

1 · What the graph read from it

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.

Overweight prevalence increases from 2 to 8 years of age among children with immigrant background in a Norwegian multiethnic population.Scandinavian journal of public health · 2025
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Tracking between cardiovascular-related measures at 4 and 8 years of age in the INMA-Asturias cohort.European journal of pediatrics · 2023
Article
Looking backwards and forwards: tracking and persistence of weight status between early childhood and adolescence.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2021
Article
Socioeconomic status, remoteness and tracking of nutritional status from childhood to adulthood in an Australian Aboriginal Birth Cohort: the ABC study.BMJ open · 2020
Article
Body mass index trajectories and adiposity rebound during the first 6 years in Korean children: Based on the National Health Information Database, 2008-2015.PloS one · 2020
Article
Prevalence of Dyslipidemia in Students from Han, Uygur, and Kazakh Ethnic Groups in a Medical University in Xinjiang, China.Scientific reports · 2019
Article

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

J A de WildeDepartment of Public Health and Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands. J.A.de_Wilde@lumc.nl.

Bjc MiddelkoopDepartment of Public Health and Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.

P H VerkerkDepartment of Child Health, TNO, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Leiden University Medical Center · NLNetherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research · NL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundOverweight is shown to track (= to maintain a relative position in a distribution) from childhood to adulthood, but is mostly studied in preobesogenic cohorts and in single ethnic groups. Little is known about tracking of thinness by ethnicity.

objectivesto determine (differences in) tracking of BMI (class) from 3 through 15 years and the prediction of BMI class at 13-15 years of age in contemporary Dutch, Turkish, Moroccan and South Asian children living in the Netherlands.

methodsHistorical cohort of 7625 children, born 1994-1997, with 24,376 measurements of BMI. BMI z-score and BMI class was analysed using universal criteria. South Asian children were also assessed using ethnic specific BMI criteria. Diagnostic odds ratios (OR) and test properties were calculated to estimate the ability of BMI class at 3-4 years to predict BMI class at 13-15 years.

resultsTracking of thinness between 3 and 15 years was stronger than that of overweight, as indicated by a generally higher diagnostic OR. BMI trajectories between 3 and 15 years of age of thin, normal weight and overweight adolescents were, although significantly different, quite similarly shaped in children of Dutch, Turkish and Moroccan descent. The South Asian BMI trajectory deviated considerably from the other ethnic groups, but the differences disappeared when South Asian specific BMI criteria were applied. A substantial proportion of overweight developed between 5-10 years, after which less children shifted to other BMI classes. A total of 55-78% of children with overweight at 3-4 years retained their overweight at 13-15 years, and 10-20% of 3-4 year olds with thinness remained thin.

conclusionsIn all ethnic groups, overweight and especially thinness highly tracked into adolescence. South Asian children differed from the other ethnic groups when universal BMI criteria were applied, but with South Asian specific BMI criteria tracking patterns became more concordant.

Indexed as

AdolescentAsian PeopleBody Mass IndexChildChild, PreschoolCohort StudiesEthnicityFemaleFollow-Up StudiesHumansMaleMoroccoNetherlandsOdds RatioOverweightPrevalence

Identifiers

PMID29892040

DOI10.1038/s41366-018-0135-9

OpenAlexW2808356267

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.