Influence of birthweight and delivery mode on obesity among primary school students in Guangzhou / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the influence of birthweight and delivery mode on overweight/obesity and abdominal obesity in primary school students, and to provide evidence for childhood obesity prevention.@*Methods@#After physical examination, questionnaire survey was conducted among 3 361 students and their parents from 3 primary schools in Guangzhou selected through stratified clustering sampling. Information about birthweight and delivery mode was collected. Logistic regression model was used to analyze the association of birthweight and delivery mode with overweight/obesity and abdominal obesity. The multiplicative interaction term and the Delta method was used to explore the potential interaction.@*Results@#The prevalence rate of overweight and obesity for primary school students was 21.33%, and the rate of abdominal obesity was 12.08%. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that delivery by cesarean section was associated with 44% increased risk of overweight/obesity(OR=1.44, 95%CI=1.16-1.80), as compared to vaginal delivery. Higher birthweight was linked to increased risk of overweight/obesity(OR=1.62, 95%CI=1.09-2.42). There was no significant association of birth weight and delivery mode with abdominal obesity in multivariate analysis(P>0.05). Additionally, a positive additive interaction was seen between delivery mode and parental obesity for students risk of overweight/obesity(RERI=0.33, 95%CI=0.02-0.65), as well as for the risk of abdominal obesity(RERI=0.39, 95%CI=0.12-0.65).@*Conclusion@#Cesarean section delivery and higher birthweight are linked to increased risk of overweight and obesity in primary school students. The synergistic effect of cesarean section and parental obesity may increase the risk of childhood obesity.