The stability of weight status through the early to middle childhood years in Australia: a longitudinal study

Abstract

ObjectivesTo investigate the sociodemographic and behavioural factors associated with incidence, persistence or remission of obesity in a longitudinal sample of Australian children aged 4–10 years.SettingNationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC).ParticipantsThe sample for this analysis included all children in the Kinder cohort (aged 4–5 years at wave 1) who participated in all four waves of LSAC (wave 1, 2004, aged 4–5 years; wave 2, 2006, aged 6–7 years; wave 3, 2008, aged 8–9 years and wave 4, 2010, aged 10–11 years). Of the 4983 children who participated in the baseline (wave 1) survey, 4169 (83.7%) children completed all four waves of data collection.Primary and secondary outcome measuresMovement of children between weight status categories over time and individual-level predictors of weight status change (sociodemographic characteristics, selected dietary and activity behaviours).ResultsThe study found tracking of weight status across this period of childhood. There was an inverse association observed between socioeconomic position and persistence of overweight/obesity. Sugar-sweetened beverages and fruit and vegetable intake and screen time appeared to be important predictors of stronger tracking.ConclusionsOverweight and obesity established early in childhood tracks strongly to the middle childhood years in Australia, particularly among children of lower socioeconomic position and children participating in some unhealthy behaviour patterns.

A systematic review of the association between consumption of sugar‐containing beverages and excess weight gain among children under age 12

“…Eighty‐six citations were excluded (Appendix 3). Thirty‐eight citations met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review, of which 34 were cohort studies , One was an RCT , and 3 were controlled clinical trials where data from the various groups were the study authors combined groups for analysis as a cohort study .…”

“…Some of the studies included in this systematic reviewed performed analyses of different exposures and/or outcomes of interest using the same data set, such as Bigornia et al , and Dong et al , Zheng et al , and Zheng et al , Shefferly et al , and DeBoer et al , Millar et al , and Wheaton et al . Study characteristics for each included study were abstracted (Table ).…”

“…Of these, 4 out of 7 studies (57 percent) demonstrated a statistically significant positive association between change in SCB consumption and change in adiposity . Out of the 24 studies that did not conduct a change‐over‐change analysis, 15 demonstrated (63 percent) a statistically significant positive association between change in SCB consumption and change in adiposity .…”

Physical activity of German children during different segments of the school day

“…Subcutaneous fat in 6–9 year old children has been shown to increase even three to fivefold (Nagel et al 2009), which means, even if levels have plateaued, children’s weight status stopped at a very high level. An extensive body of research indicates that overweight and obese children have a higher risk of becoming obese adults than their normal counterparts (Singh et al 2008; Venn et al 2007; Pei et al 2013; Wheaton et al 2015) and a major contributing factor is low levels of physical activity (Hills et al 2011). On the other hand, benefits of a physically active lifestyle for childhood health are well documented (Andersen et al 2006; Janssen and LeBlanc 2010); therefore, the WHO (WHO 2010) developed recommendations for appropriate amounts of physical activity for children and adolescents.…”

The impact of front-of-pack marketing attributes versus nutrition and health information on parents' food choices

“…In addition, a national survey found that 98% of Australian children aged five to 14 years did not eat the recommended daily serves of fruit and vegetables (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2016), whilst other research discovered two thirds of children exceed recommended sugar intakes, and four fifths exceed recommended saturated fat intakes (CSIRO, 2008). This presents a significant public health challenge as many aspects of eating behaviors, as well as weight status, are formed in childhood and are subsequently difficult to change (Savage, Fisher, & Birch, 2007;Scaglioni, Salvioni, & Galimberti, 2008;Wheaton, Millar, Allender, & Nichols, 2015). This puts individuals at greater risk for developing non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some forms of cancer in later life (Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002), which are presently the biggest causes of disease and disability in many developed countries including Australia (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2016).…”