BIRTH-WEIGHT AND WEIGHT, STATURE, AND BODY-MASS INDEX AT AGES 6 AND 14 YEARS

To analyze the effect of birth weight on weight, stature, and the Body Mass Index (BMI) at the ages of 6 and 14 years, 1, 1 15 Jerusalem schoolchildren were studied. Correlations were low, but higher between birth and 6 years (range 0.10-0.31) than between birth and 14 years (range 0.04-0.20). The positive predictive values for the highest quartile of BMI at 6 and 14 years were 29.6 and 29.4% among boys, 31.4 and 33.0% among girls. They were highest for menstruating girls, 35.6 and 40.0%, respectively. These girls were already heavier at age 6 than other girls and boys. Analysis of covariance showed that birth weight was consistently associated with weight, stature, and the BMI, while mother's origin, education and age, and the number of children in the family were not. Overall, the explained variance was low and decreased with age in both sexes. It was higher for stature than for weight, and was specially low for the BMI. (C) 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.