Developmental trajectories at a high risk for childhood overweight/obesity

The associations between developmental patterns (trajectories) in children and maternal factors have been widely investigated, but paternal effects on these trajectories are unclear. This study aimed to determine children's and parental factors involved in developmental trajectories at a high risk for having adverse cardiovascular (CV) profiles in children.We analysed longitudinal anthropometric data from birth to present and CV profiles of 1832 healthy volunteers (51% girls) aged 3-15 years who participated in a nationwide study between July 2012 and January 2014. Six-trajectory latent class growth models were developed using body mass index Z-scores. Predictors for being in developmental trajectories at a high risk for adverse CV profiles were determined by multivariate regression analysis.The mean number of anthropometric data points was 12±3 for both boys and girls. Among the six trajectories, the infantile onset and continual increase groups had significantly worse levels of many CV profiles than those in the remaining groups. Paternal overweight/obesity was an independent predictor for boys being in the infantile onset group and for girls being in the continual increase group. Additionally, maternal pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity in boys and maternal excessive gestational weight gain in girls were independent predictors for being in the infantile onset group. Having no other sibling in boys and an older maternal age were independent predictors for being in the continual increase group.Interventions to prevent childhood obesity should include strategies that focus on fathers and mothers and those that focus on children with some familial backgrounds.