New research shatters popular belief about children’s weight into pieces
A new study has found not only that there is more than one trajectory for children’s weight as they mature but also a generational shift in patterns.
Standard literature on childhood body mass index (BMI), the relation of a person’s weight to their height, depicts a single trajectory, or Type 1, which rises swiftly during a child’s first year before decreasing until they reach age five. After that, it rises again until they mature to adulthood.
However, new research out of the University of Oulu, Finland has found two additional distinct patterns of BMI, Type 2 and Type 3, which were clustered among different birth cohorts. These new BMI types differ from the Type 1 in the rate at which a child’s BMI changes over time. According to the lead author of the study and PhD researcher Anni Heiskala, this confirms that BMI alone is not a sufficient measure for assessing children’s weight.
Study finds children’s weight development shifted between generations
Children with Type 2 trajectory, like Type 1, saw their BMI rise rapidly in their first year peaking slightly later before dipping again as they grew taller. However, they had another increase in BMI between the ages of four and nine after which their BMI experienced another trough which lasted longer.
Type 3 BMI trajectories follow the pattern of Type 1, but these children experienced a dip in their BMI in the teens prior to it rising once again as they reached maturity.
The researchers found that the cohort of Finnish babies, whose mothers gave birth in the provinces of Oulu and Lapland, in the year 1986 had more prevalence of Type 3 in female children and Type 1 in both sexes. On the other hand, the cohort born 20 years before had a prevalence of Type 2 in both sexes but more male children had Type 3.
“Type 3 participants’ mothers had more often continued smoking after the 2nd month of the pregnancy and had lower educational level than mothers of the participants clustered to Type 1 or Type 2,” notes the study which was published in the International Journal of Obesity.
“Understanding variations in BMI trajectories will help future studies better target interventions and investigate long-term health trends,” said Heiskala. The noticeable difference between generations could suggest that children’s BMI is affected by factors in the wider environment and society in which they grew up.
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