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Circannual variation in relative weight of children 5 to 16 years of age

S Bhutani1, L P Hanrahan2, J Vanwormer3

  • 1Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA.

Pediatric Obesity
|April 18, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Children

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Health
  • Obesity Research
  • Growth Monitoring

Background:

  • Previous studies on childhood weight gain often used limited data points.
  • Seasonal variations in children's weight status require detailed investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine monthly variations in children's weight status.
  • To assess the accuracy of using two time points for evaluating circannual weight changes.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of de-identified health records from 70,531 children (ages 5-16) in South Central Wisconsin (2007-2012).
  • Cross-sectional analysis of monthly average body mass index (BMI) z-scores.
  • Paired analysis for a subset comparing school and summer months.

Main Results:

  • BMI z-scores were lower during summer months (June-August) compared to school year months (September-May).
  • A significant decrease in BMI z-scores was observed from May to June.
  • BMI z-scores increased rapidly between August and September.

Conclusions:

  • The observed monthly pattern differs from previous two-point studies.
  • Using only two time points (fall and spring) is suboptimal for assessing seasonal weight changes in children.
  • Future interventions should incorporate more frequent BMI measures for accurate seasonal analysis.
Abstract

Keywords:
Childrenelectronic medical recordsevaluationobesityprevention

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