RESEARCH ARTICLE


Birth Weight is Associated with Body Composition in a Multiethnic Pediatric Cohort



Amanda L. Willig*, 1, Lynae J. Hanks1, Jose R. Fernandez1, 2
1 Department of Nutrition Sciences and the Clinical Nutrition Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1675 University Blvd, WEBB 429, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA
2 Department of Biostatistics, Section on Statistical Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1675 University Blvd, WEBB 429, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2011
Volume: 3
First Page: 4
Last Page: 8
Publisher Id: TOOBESJ-3-4
DOI: 10.2174/1876823701103010004

Article History:

Received Date: 27/08/2009
Revision Received Date: 27/09/2009
Acceptance Date: 02/11/2009
Electronic publication date: 1/3/2011
Collection year: 2011

© 2011 Willig et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Nutrition Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1675 University Blvd, WEBB 429, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA; Tel: +1 205 975 9678; E-mail: mandyrd@uab.edu


Abstract

Several studies have indicated that birth weight is associated with increased risk for excess fat accumulation later in life. Our objective was to evaluate the association between birth weight and body composition measures in a multiethnic pediatric population while controlling for environmental factors previously associated with increased adiposity. Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry was performed on 256 European-American, African-American, and Hispanic-American boys and girls. Body composition measurements were adjusted by height to create a fat mass index, fat-free mass index, and trunk fat mass index. After adjusting for age, pubertal status, sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and physical activity, we found that higher birth weights were associated with significant increases in all three body composition indices (P < 0.05). After adjusting for physical activity in analysis of covariance, the relationship between birth weight and the fat-free mass index was no longer significant. This study suggests that higher birth weight is a risk factor for later unfavorable body composition changes in children, and that current environment and physical activity habits can affect these outcomes.

Keywords: Birth weight, pediatric, adiposity, fat mass index, fat-free mass index.