Abstract
Objective. To report the prevalence of favorable growth patterns, including healthy weight maintenance (HWM) and return to healthy weight (RHW) among US school-age children. Methods. A longitudinal analysis of childhood growth patterns from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort was completed (n = 9416). The primary outcome included describing the prevalence of HWM/RHW patterns using consecutive child growth data from kindergarten to fifth grades. Multivariate logistic regression was used to explore predictors of HWM/RHW. Incidence of RHW is calculated by grade level. Results. Seventy percent (n = 6617) of children enter kindergarten at a healthy weight and approximately 70% maintained a healthy weight through fifth grade. Among overweight/obese kindergartners, only 17.1% outgrew their weight risk (RHW) by fifth grade. Conclusions. Fewer than 1 in 5 at-risk children outgrow their weight risk during school-age yet a majority of healthy weight children can maintain healthy weight during a critical growth period. Future work should explore additional socioecologic factors associated with favorable growth.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 458-468 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Clinical pediatrics |
Volume | 54 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 9 2015 |
Keywords
- favorable growth
- growth patterns
- health disparities
- healthy weight
- obesity resilience
- school-age
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health