Abstract
Large childhood body size has been consistently shown to be associated with decreased breast cancer risk. However, it is important to consider the effects of a large childhood body size on other adult diseases. It is not clear if the associations between childhood body size and adult diseases will persist if they later attain healthy weight. The associations between body size at age 7 and 17 adverse outcomes in adulthood were examined using Cox models in a Swedish study of 65,057 women. Large body size at age 7, when compared to small body size, was associated with decreased risk for breast cancer (HR [95% CI]: 0.81 [0.70–0.93]) and increased risks for anorexia (2.13 [1.63–2.77]) and bulimia (1.91 [1.35–2.70]). Neither adjusting for adult BMI nor restricting the dataset to lean adults (BMI < 25 kg/m2) attenuated the associations. While large body size at age 7 by itself was positively associated with increased risks of diabetes (1.34 [1.16–1.55]), PCOS (1.69 [1.13–2.51]) and hypertension (before age 60), the associations were no longer significant after controlling for adult BMI. No clear associations were found with the remaining adverse outcomes (cervical, uterine, melanoma, colon cancer, depression, ovarian cyst, stroke, hyperlipidemia, heart failure, myocardial infarction, and angina pectoris).
Highlights
Obesity is classified as a chronic disease by the World Health Organization (WHO) (2000 report “Obesity: Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic”), described as being prevalent in both developed and developing countries, and affecting children as well as adults
We examined a wide range of long-term consequences of a large body size during childhood on later life well-being in a large Swedish study comprising 65,057 women
Our results suggest that childhood body size is an important risk factor for breast cancer and eating disorders that is independent of adult BMI
Summary
Obesity is classified as a chronic disease by the World Health Organization (WHO) (2000 report “Obesity: Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic”), described as being prevalent in both developed and developing countries, and affecting children as well as adults Various measures of both adult and childhood anthropometry such as BMI, height, waist-to-hip ratio, and body size have been extensively studied as risk factors for many adult diseases. In particular, is an interesting early life risk factor, as it has been consistently shown to confer protection against both pre- and postmenopausal breast cancer[1,2]. Childhood body size is recognized as an early-life risk factor for many adult diseases, most studies to date have presented the associations with different diseases separately in different reports. As it is unclear if the associations between childhood body size and adult diseases will persist if the children later attain healthy weight, we performed subset analyses in women who were not overweight (
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