Back

Title
  • Underweight and obesity in low birth weight children in early infancy in Japan.
Creator
    • Kato, Rena
    • Kubota, Masaru
    • Saito, Hiromi
    • Takahashi, Yukihiro
Subject
  • Other Growth
  • Other Low Birth Weight
  • Other Obesity
  • Other Small-for-Gestational Age
  • Other Underweight
Description
  • Other type:Article
  • Other Introduction: Although there are several reports on the prevalence of underweight or obesity in low birth weight (LBW, <2.5 kg) children, there are few longitudinal studies from birth to early infancy. Methods: We enrolled 177 (93 boys) LBW and 2485 (1267 boys) normal birth weight (NBW, 〓2.5 and <4.0 kg) children. Height and weight data at birth and at 1.5, 3.5, and 5 years were obtained from mother-health child records. Underweight and obesity were defined as <5th percentile and 〓90th percentile of the body mass index (BMI), respectively, based on reference values for Japanese children. Results: LBW children had accelerated growth from birth to age 3.5 years, but at Age 5, both sexes had significantly lesser height and weight z-scores, with notably lesser BMI percentile scores for girls, compared with NBW children. The prevalence of underweight was significantly higher in the LBW children throughout the study period. There were no significant differences in the prevalence of obesity between the two groups, except for at birth. Multiple regression analysis revealed that small-for-gestational age was associated with underweight at Age 5 years. Conclusions: This study indicates that, up to Age 5, underweight is a more serious problem than obesity in LBW children. Our results suggest that careful observation of growth from early infancy is necessary to prevent the occurrence of underweight in early infancy.
Publisher Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
Date
    Created2016-07-05 , Issued2015-03-11
Language
  • eng
Resource Type journal article
Version Type VoR
Identifier URI http://hdl.handle.net/10935/4297
Relation
  • isIdenticalTo DOI https://doi.org/10.4236/fns.2015.63034
Journal
    • ISSN 2157-9458
      • Food and Nutrition Sciences
      • Volume Number6 Issue Number3 Page Start339 Page End347
File
Oaidate 2023-08-20