BBC: Childhood obesity 'can be predicted by check at birth'

[Saffron]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20509577

Researchers say a baby's chance of being obese in childhood can be predicted at birth using a simple formula.

The formula combines several known factors to estimate the risk of obesity.

Interesting, check out the formula calculator in the article, or link to it here: http://files-good.ibl.fr/childhood-obesity/

(For help with BMI and other conversions for weight and height: http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ and http://onlineconversion.com/ )

While it's tempting to brush this off as being a bit "academic" (ie not applying to the real world), researchers somewhat surprisingly found that genetics played less of a role that previoulsy thought and that predictability from the formula was around 80%.

Researchers from Imperial College London looked at 4,032 Finnish children born in 1986 and at data from two further studies of 1,503 Italian children and 1,032 US children.

They found that looking at a few simple measurements, such as a child's birthweight and whether the mother smoked, was enough to predict obesity.

Previously it had been thought that genetic factors would give bigger clues to later weight problems, but only about one in 10 cases of obesity is the result of a rare gene mutation that affects appetite.

...

The risk factors for obesity are already well known, but this is the first time these factors have been put together in a formula.

Prof Philippe Froguel from Imperial College London, who led the study, said that prevention was the best strategy. Once obese, a child can find it difficult to lose weight.

"The equation is based on data everyone can obtain from a newborn, and we found it can predict around 80% of obese children.

"Unfortunately, public prevention campaigns have been rather ineffective at preventing obesity in school-age children. Teaching parents about the dangers of overfeeding and bad nutritional habits at a young age would be much more effective.