Early life risk factors for obesity in childhood: cohort study

This prospective cohort study involved 8234 children in cohort aged 7 years and a subsample of 909 children (children in focus) with data on additional early growth related risk factors for obesity. Obesity at age 7 years was defined as a body mass index 95th centile relative to reference data for the UK population in 1990. Some of the significant risk factors associated with a risk of obesity in the final models are situated in the primal period, in particular birthweight and maternal smoking between 28 and 32 weeks'gestation. The protective effect of excusive breastfeeding on obesity at age 7 disappeared in the final model in which all variable where analysed simultaneously.