[Risk of newborns developing obesity in childhood and adolescence]

Introduction: childhood overweight and obesity are considered an epidemic that affects the entire population regardless of a nation's income level. Currently, there is a digital tool for predicting the risk of this disease in newborns, which has the advantages of being quick to perform and not requiring additional tests. Objective: to estimate the proportion and association of newborns at risk of developing obesity in childhood and adolescence in family triads. Methods: descriptive, comparative, correlational, and cross-sectional study. The sampling was simple random probability sampling, and the sample consisted of 120 triads from the northern part of the country and 200 triads from the southern part. Results: in the northern part of the country, 74 newborns (61.7 %) were found to have low ROB, compared to 18 (15.0 %) with medium risk and 28 (23.3 %) with high risk. There were no differences compared to the population in the southern part of the country (X2 = 3.098; p = 0.212). The sex of the newborn, the weeks of gestation, and the number of pregnancies of the mother were not related and did not show significant differences (p > 0.05). Conclusions: the risk of developing overweight and obesity is present in the study sample. Further studies in other populations are needed to determine the distributions and prevalence of childhood obesity risk. Prevention and promotion interventions starting in the prenatal stage will be necessary to reduce overweight and obesity.