ABSTRACT
The overweight and obesity epidemic in Iran started in about 2001. Obesity in the early decades of life is a strong predictor of adult obesity. Some of the most important risk factors of overweight and obesity in childhood are related to infant feeding pattern, parents obesity, family socioeconomic status, birth weight, physical activity, and diet. Breastfeeding is a good strategy for reducing childhood overweight and obesity. In this study the association between overweight and obesity with birth weight and breastfeeding pattern in 7 year-old children in Shiraz was investigated. This case-control study included a total of 400 Shirazin first-year primary school children [200 obese children as case and 200 normal-weight ones as control] selected by multistage sampling. The schools were selected by stratified random sampling and then all of the overweight and obese children [case group] were selected by cluster sampling. Overweight and obesity were defined as 85 /= 95 percentile of CDC 2000, respectively. For each case subject a control child was chosen matched for age, sex, school and grade. Data were collected by a nutritionist on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, breastfeeding pattern, birth weight, physical activity, and food consumption [24-hour diet recall] by interviewing mothers, using appropriate questionnaires. Weights and heights of the mothers were also measured. The SPSS software was used for data analysis. The length of breastfeeding, mothers' BMI, and obesity in first-degree family members were statistically significantly different between the case and control groups [P = 0.005]. On the other hand, there was no significant difference between the 2 groups with regard to the family socio-economic status. Further analysis of the data showed no association between birth weight and overweight and obesity in the case group. The results of this study show that overweight and obesity in 7- year old children in Shiraz city are related to breastfeeding pattern, although the relationship may not be an independent one