Body mass index (BMI) uses height and weight measures to calculate overweight and obesity. A high BMI is a risk factor for a long list of chronic and potentially deadly diseases. However, BMI does not distinguish body fat composition. South Asians have a high-fat body type but low average BMI. Their high-fat body type may explain why they have high rates of obesity-related disease including type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Now research conducted on South Asians reports that low birth weight is linked to adult obesity.
The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, investigated the association of adult body composition to birth size and childhood BMI. Researchers from Sunder Lal Jain Hospital in New Delhi, India, analyzed 1,526 men and women, followed from birth to 21 years old. Researchers obtained weight, height, skinfold thicknesses, waist and hip circumferences, and BMI measurements from the participants.
The researchers found that many participants had a low birth weight and were underweight in early childhood. However, as adults, 47 percent were overweight, 11 percent were obese, and 51 percent were obese around their midsection (central obesity). Central obesity is a risk factor for heart disease. Findings also revealed that low birth weight and BMI gains in late childhood and adolescence were associated with adult adiposity (fat tissue). Furthermore, high birth weights and BMI gains in infancy and early childhood were associated with adult leanness.
"Birth weight and BMI gain during infancy and early childhood predict adult lean mass more strongly than adult adiposity," the study authors conclude. "Greater BMI gain in late childhood and adolescence predicts increased adult adiposity."
REFERENCES:
1. Sachdev HS et al. Anthropometric indicators of body composition in young adults: relation to size at birth and serial measurements of body mass index in childhood in the New Delhi birth cohort. Am J Clin Nutr 2005 Aug;82(2):456-66.
Posted by Elaine Gavalas on November 7, 2006 03:25 PM
