A study presented at the European Congress on Obesity suggests that asking adults whether they were thinner, fatter than normal as a child could hold the key to finding mortality risks
It is not standard practice for doctors when they are treating obese, adult patients to delve into their body images as ten-year-olds. But doing so, suggests a study presented at the European Congress on Obesity could help doctors work out the actual health risks of their patients better.
The study is by Dr William Johnson, an epidemiology expert based at Loughborough University, UK, and colleagues.
Obesity both in adults and children is a major public health concern but the study aimed to build a connection between the two and to evaluate whether the associations of adulthood overweight and obesity with mortality and incident disease differ according to self-reported child body weight.
The sample comprised 191,181 men and 242,806 women aged 40-69 years at baseline in the UK Biobank prospective cohort study between 2006-10. The outcomes were all-cause mortality and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD), obesity-related cancer, and breast cancer. The authors measured BMI at baseline (categorised as normal weight, overweight, or living with obesity) and self-reported perceived body weight at age 10 years (about average, thinner, plumper).
Obese adults were asked: “When you were 10 years old, compared to average, would you describe yourself as: thinner, about average, or plumper?” Across the recruited cohort during follow-up 8% died, 35% developed CVD, and 2% of the whole cohort (men and women) developed obesity related cancer – including cancers of the colon, uterus, oesophagus, gallbladder, stomach, kidney, pancreas, rectum, thyroid, brain lining (meningioma) and also multiple myeloma. And 5% of women developed breast cancer. Adult men who were thinner as children had the least mortality risk, the study found. Interestingly, adult women who were plumper as kids had the least mortality risk.
“For adult men who reported having a normal weight at 10 years old, living with obesity was associated with a 28% (1.28 times) increased risk of all-cause mortality compared to adult men with normal weight. For men reporting being thinner at age 10, living with obesity as an adult was associated with a 63% (1.63 times) increased risk of all-cause mortality compared to men with normal weight. And for men reporting being ‘plumper’ at age 10, there was a 45% (1.45 times) increased risk of all-cause mortality for those living with obesity as adults compared to those living with normal weight,” the researchers reported.
The correlations were marginally different for women. “For adult women who reported having a normal weight at 10 years old, living with obesity was associated with a 38% (1.38 times) increased risk of all-cause mortality compared to adult women living with normal weight. For women reporting being thinner at age 10, living with obesity was associated with a 60% (1.6 times) increased risk of all-cause mortality compared with women of normal weight. And for women reporting being plumper at age 10, there was a 32% (1.32 times) increased risk of all-cause mortality for those living with obesity as adults compared to those living with normal weight,” the researchers reported.
