ArticleBMJ open2023
Growth patterns in childhood and adolescence and adult body composition: a pooled analysis of birth cohort studies from five low and middle-income countries (COHORTS collaboration).
Article in BMJ open, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Nigerian youth FitnessGram edge: A bright signal with important caveats.World journal of clinical pediatrics · 2026Article
- Prevalence of and factors influencing elevated blood pressure among Chinese adolescents: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Excessive Gestational Weight Gain, Independent of Body Mass Index, Is Associated With Child Fat Mass Index at Age 2 Years in the Growing life, Optimizing Wellness Study.Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics · 2025Observational
- Integrating infectious diseases into life course epidemiology.International journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Associations of linear growth with body composition of perinatally HIV-infected African adolescents.The British journal of nutrition · 2024Article
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19 authors.
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Abstract
objectiveWe examined associations among serial measures of linear growth and relative weight with adult body composition.
designSecondary data analysis of prospective birth cohort studies. SETTINGS: Six birth cohorts from Brazil, Guatemala, India, the Philippines and South Africa.
participants4173 individuals followed from birth to ages 22-46 years with complete and valid weight and height at birth, infancy, childhood and adolescence, and body composition in adult life. EXPOSURES: Birth weight and conditional size (standardised residuals of height representing linear growth and of relative weight representing weight increments independent of linear size) in infancy, childhood and adolescence. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Body mass index, fat mass index (FMI), fat-free mass index (FFMI), fat mass/fat-free mass ratio (FM/FFM), and waist circumference in young and mid-adulthood.
resultsIn pooled analyses, a higher birth weight and relative weight gains in infancy, childhood and adolescence were positively associated with all adult outcomes. Relative weight gains in childhood and adolescence were the strongest predictors of adult body composition (β (95% CI) among men: FMI (childhood: 0.41 (0.26 to 0.55); adolescence: 0.39 (0.27 to 0.50)), FFMI (childhood: 0.50 (0.34 to 0.66); adolescence: 0.43 (0.32 to 0.55)), FM/FFM (childhood: 0.31 (0.16 to 0.47); adolescence: 0.31 (0.19 to 0.43))). Among women, similar patterns were observed, but, effect sizes in adolescence were slightly stronger than in childhood. Conditional height in infancy was positively associated with FMI (men: 0.08 (0.03 to 0.14); women: 0.11 (0.07 to 0.16)). Conditional height in childhood was positively but weakly associated with women's adiposity. Site-specific and sex-stratified analyses showed consistency in the direction of estimates, although there were differences in their magnitude.
conclusionsPrenatal and postnatal relative weight gains were positive predictors of larger body size and increased adiposity in adulthood. A faster linear growth in infancy was a significant but weak predictor of higher adult adiposity.
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