Age-Specific Quantification of Overweight/Obesity Risk Factors From Infancy to Adolescence and Differences by Educational Level of Parents

Int J Public Health. 2023 Nov 15:68:1605798. doi: 10.3389/ijph.2023.1605798. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Objectives: To explore the age-dependent associations between 26 risk factors and BMI in early life, and differences by parental educational level. Methods: Data of 10,310 children (24,155 measurements) aged 2-16 years participating in a multi-centre European cohort from 2007 to 2014 were utilized. Trajectories of overweight/obesity risk factors and their age-specific associations with BMI were estimated using polynomial mixed-effects models. Results: Exposure to most unfavourable factors was higher in the low/medium compared to the high education group, e.g., for PC/TV time (12.6 vs. 10.6 h/week). Trajectories of various risk factors markedly changed at an age of 9-11 years. Having a family history of obesity, maternal BMI, pregnancy weight gain and birth weight were positively associated with BMI trajectories throughout childhood/adolescence in both education groups; associations of behavioural factors with BMI were small. Parental unemployment and migrant background were positively associated with BMI in the low/medium education group. Conclusion: Associations of risk factors with BMI trajectories did not essentially differ by parental education except for social vulnerabilities. The age period of 9-11 years may be a sensitive period for adopting unfavourable behaviours.

Keywords: IDEFICS/I.Family cohort; body mass index; childhood overweight/obesity; overweight/obesity risk factors; parental education.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Age Factors
  • Body Mass Index
  • Child
  • Educational Status
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Obesity / complications
  • Overweight* / complications
  • Overweight* / epidemiology
  • Parents
  • Pediatric Obesity* / epidemiology
  • Pediatric Obesity* / etiology
  • Pregnancy
  • Risk Factors

Grants and funding

The GrowH! project is funded by the Joint Programming Initiative “A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life” (JPI HDHL), a research and innovation initiative of EU member states and associated countries. The funding agencies supporting this work are (in alphabetical order of participating countries): Belgium: Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO); Germany: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; grant no. 01EA2102A); Spain: Spanish State Research Agency (AEI); Netherlands: Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the ERA-NET Cofund action N° 727565. The data have been made available for this publication by the IDEFICS (http://www.idefics.eu) and I.Family studies (http://www.ifamilystudy.eu/). The IDEFICS Study was funded by the European Community within the Sixth RTD Framework Programme Contract No. 016181 (FOOD). The I.Family Study was funded by the European Community within the Seventh RTD Framework Programme Contract No. 266044.