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. 2017 Aug 18;7(8):e014548.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014548.

Social and somatic determinants of underweight, overweight and obesity at 5 years of age: a Norwegian regional cohort study

Hilde Mjell Donkor  1 , Jacob Holter Grundt  1 , Pétur Benedikt Júlíusson  2 , Geir Egil Eide  3   4 , Jørgen Hurum  1 , Robert Bjerknes  2 , Trond Markestad  2   5
Affiliations

Social and somatic determinants of underweight, overweight and obesity at 5 years of age: a Norwegian regional cohort study

Hilde Mjell Donkor et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objective: To identify associations between the weight groups underweight (UW), overweight (OW) and obesity (OB) at 5 years of age and exposures related to pregnancy, anthropometric measures at birth, sociodemographic factors, and family health, anthropometric measures and habits.

Design: Regional cohort study.

Setting: Oppland County, Norway.

Methods: Pregnancy data were obtained from a prospective perinatal register for children born in the county, and weight and height were measured by midwives at birth and by public health nurses at 5 years. Other information was obtained from questionnaires completed by parents.

Participants: Of 1895 eligible children, current weight and height were obtained for all, weight and length at birth and information from parents for 1119 (59%) and pregnancy register data for 749 (40%) of the children. The significance of potential explanatory variables from descriptive statistics was tested in multinomial logistic regression analysis.

Results: The prevalence of UW, OW and OB among participants was 7.8%, 10.6% and 3.5%, respectively. UW was associated with anthropometric measures at birth and those of parents, but not with sociodemographic or behavioural characteristics. OW and OB were associated with anthropometric measures of parents and siblings and with a variety of unfavourable social characteristics, lack of prolonged breast feeding, sedentary behaviour and dental caries, but not with current dietary habits. After adjustments, OW and OB were marginally related to birth parameters and diet and unrelated to physical activity, but significantly related to parental body mass index, low parental education and maternal smoking.

Conclusion: The strong associations between sociodemographic and behavioural factors and OW and OB, but not with UW, may suggest that environmental factors are major contributing causes of OW and particularly OB at 5 years. These results may be helpful in targeting preventive measures against OW and OB.

Keywords: child; obesity; overweight; prevalence; prevention; risk factors; underweight.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous 3 years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

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