BIRTH-WEIGHT AND CHILDHOOD SIZE IN A NATIONAL SAMPLE OF 6-YEAR-OLD TO11-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN

The extent to which body size (stature, weight, or weight-for-stature) in later childhood is related to birth weight for normal-weight, full -term infants was explored using data from a national sample of U.S. c hildren examined in Cycle II of the National Health Examination Survey , 1963-65. Standardized measurements of stature and weight from 4,689 white singletons ages 6-11 years were linked with birth certificate in formation. There were small but consistent positive associations of at tained stature and weight with birth weight. The Body Mass Index (BMI) , a measure of weight in proportion to stature, was also positively re lated to birth weight, although not as consistently, suggesting that t he greater attained weight of higher birth weight children may be rela ted to increased adiposity as well as to greater stature. However, sim ulations of the effect of an across-the-board increase in birth weight by 100 g or 200 g showed a negligible expected increase in the number of children with high BMI values. These findings indicate that birth weight is directly or indirectly a factor related to growth in childho od, but that upward shifts in the distribution of birth weight would h ave little effect on the prevalence of childhood obesity. (C) 1995 Wil ey-Liss, Inc.