Abstract
Data were analyzed on weight-for-height and birthweight of over 17,000 infants age 1 to 24 months in Arizona. Birthweights between 2500 and 3500 grams were associated with a significantly lower risk of obesity (defined as over the 94th %ile of weight-for-helght for age and sex) than lower or higher birthweights. This pattern was especially marked for Black infants and was less marked but also significant (p<.05) for Whites and Spanish-Americans. The relationship did not hold for American Indians, for whom risk of obesity increased linearly with birthweight.
Birthweight reflects in part the degree to which the fetal phenotype is buffered against environmental stress. Thus infants whose birthweights are far from the mean may be relative developmental hyper-responders and thus, in an environment which overfeeds, at higher risk of obesity.
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Harrison, G., White, M. & Goldsby, J. RELATIONSHIP OF BIRTHWEIGHT TO RISK OF INFANTILE OBESITY. Pediatr Res 11, 436 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197704000-00399
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197704000-00399
