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Birth weight and weight, stature, and body mass index at ages 6 and 14 years
Author(s) -
Gofin Rosa,
Adler Bella,
Maddela Rolando
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.1310050507
Subject(s) - body mass index , short stature , index (typography) , body weight , demography , body height , hum , medicine , birth weight , pediatrics , biology , endocrinology , history , pregnancy , genetics , computer science , sociology , world wide web , performance art , art history
To analyze the effect of birth weight on weight, stature, and the Body Mass Index (BMI) at the ages of 6 and 14 years, 1,115 Jerusalem schoolchildren were studied. Correlations were low, but higher between birth and 6 years (range 0.10–0.31) than between birth and 14 years (range 0.04–0.20). The positive predictive values for the highest quartile of BMI at 6 and 14 years were 29.6 and 29.4% among boys, 31.4 and 33.0% among girls. They were highest for menstruating girls, 35.6 and 40.0%, respectively. These girls were already heavier at age 6 than other girls and bodys. Aanalysis of covariance showed that birth weight was consistently associated with weight, stature, and the BMI, while mother's origin, education and age, and the number of children in the family were not. Overall, the explained variance was low and decreased with age in both sexes. It was higher for stature than for weight, and was specially low for the BMI. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.