Early growth and childhood adiposity. The Generation R Study

Abstract

The World Health Organization defines overweight and obesity as abnormal or excessive accumulation of adipose tissue, which is an established risk factor for harmful health. Common health consequences of overweight and obesity include cardiometabolic diseases – mainly diabetes, stroke and heart diseases – orthopedical disorders and some cancers such as breast- and colon cancer. Currently, overweight and obesity are the fifth leading cause of global deaths.The burden of diabetes and ischemic heart disease are for 44% and 23% attributable to overweight and obesity, respectively. Overall, in 2008 more than 1.4 billion adults in the world were overweight.1 The dramatic increase in the worldwide prevalence of overweight and obesity might be designated as a ‘global epidemic’. Also, children with overweight or obesity experience more often inhalation difficulties, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, adverse lipid profile, hypertension, insulin resistance, and depression and other psychological effects. In 2010, more than 40 million children worldwide under the age of 5 years were estimated as overweight. In the Netherlands, the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity is fluctuating, but has an overall increasing trend. In 2010, 13.7% and 13.0% of the boys and girls in the Netherlands, respectively, were overweight. On average, the percentage of overweight in young persons has been increased with 40% in the last 30 years. Also, the prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors associated with overweight and obesity is increasing in children. Childhood overweight and obesity are important risk factors for overweight and obesity in adulthood. The concept of persistence or relative stability of overweight over time is often referred to as ‘tracking’. Tracking is the phenomenon that children keep their body mass index (BMI) position in the population distribution from childhood