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Circannual variation in relative weight of children 5 to 16 years of age
Author(s) -
Bhutani S.,
Hanrahan L. P.,
Vanwormer J.,
Schoeller D. A.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
pediatric obesity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.226
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 2047-6310
pISSN - 2047-6302
DOI - 10.1111/ijpo.12270
Subject(s) - medicine , demography , body mass index , demographics , standard score , cross sectional study , pediatrics , statistics , mathematics , pathology , sociology
Summary Background Summer weight gain in children has been reported; however, this is usually based on two time points. Our objective was to investigate monthly variation in weight status. Methods Cross‐sectional, de‐identified health records including height, weight and demographics, collected between 2007 and 2012 from South Central Wisconsin in 70 531 children age 5–16 years were analysed. The monthly averages in body mass index (BMI) z‐score were analysed cross‐sectionally followed by a paired analysis for a subset with one visit each during school and summer months. Results BMI z‐scores during the summer months (June–August) were lower than values during the school year (September–May). Of note, there was a rapid decrease in BMI z‐scores from May to June, with June BMI z‐score values being 0.065 units less (95% CI 0.046–0.085) than those in May, little change from June to August and a rapid increase between the August and September BMI z‐scores. Conclusion The monthly pattern does not fully agree with previous two‐point school‐based studies. Results raise concern that the use of two time point measures of BMIs (early fall and late spring) is suboptimal for evaluation of circannual variation. We suggest that future evaluation of the effect of school‐based or summer interventions utilizes additional measures in those periods so that a seasonal analysis can be performed.