Birth weight and postnatal weight gain as predictors of abdominal adiposity in childhood and adolescence: A cohort study in northeast Brazil

Abstract Aims To evaluate the influence of weight and body proportionality at birth as well as weight gain in the first six months of life on waist size at eight and 18 years of age. Methods It is a prospective cohort involving 163 full-term low birth weight infants (LBW) and 212 appropriate birth weight infants (ABW) born in 1993 and 1994 from five municipalities in the northeast region of Brazil with a poor socioeconomic status. The sample consisted of 214 adolescents recruited at birth and reassessed at eight and 18 years of age. Results The multiple linear regression analysis showed that rapid weight gain between birth and six months of age most contributed to the variation in waist circumference (WC) at eight years (10.9%) and 18 years (2.8%). ABW explained 2.1% and 2.9% of the variation in WC at eight and 18 years of age, respectively. Male sex contributed more to the difference in the WC at eight years of age (3.9%) than 18 years of age (1.5%). Conclusions ABW and rapid weight gain in the first six months of life had positive influence on waist size and may be related to the accumulation of abdominal adiposity in childhood and adolescence.