OBJECTIVES Leg length is the component of stature most sensitive to early life nutrition; as such, it provides an opportunity to retrospectively evaluate the relationship between a woman's infancy and early childhood nutrition and offspring birth weight (BW). Here we explore the relationship between maternal leg length and offspring BW in a rural Philippine community, while also investigating t...

Records from 106,212 Nellore animals, born between 1998 and 2006, were used to estimate (co)variance components and genetic parameters for birth weight (BW), average weight gains from birth to weaning (GBW), average weight gains from weaning to after yearling (GWAY), weaning hip height (WHH), postweaning hip height (PHH) and scrotal circumferences at 9 (SC9), 12 (SC12) and 15 (SC15) months of a...

Much adult physical inactivity research ignores early-life factors from which later influences may originate. In the 1958 British birth cohort (followed from 1958 to 2008), leisure-time inactivity, defined as activity frequency of less than once a week, was assessed at ages 33, 42, and 50 years (n = 12,776). Early-life factors (at ages 0-16 years) were categorized into 3 domains (i.e., physical...

We investigated time trends in maternal weight before and during pregnancy and in infant birthweight in France, from 1972 to 2003, using data on singleton live term births from the representative National Perinatal Surveys of 1972, 1981, 1995, 1998 and 2003 (n=8,664, 4,494, 11,445, 12,006, 12,692, respectively). Mothers were interviewed a few days after delivery and data on delivery and the new...

To investigate the determinants of fetal maturation of infants born to adolescent mothers, we studied the obstetric population attended at the Maternity Hospital of Lima, Peru. From this population we selected for inclusion in this study a sample of 412 adolescent mothers ranging in age from 13 to 15 yr. These subjects were selected because the anthropometric measurements of their parents were ...

The objective of this study was to identify the factors associated with size and proportionality at birth in a cohort of term infants established to investigate their growth and development. One hundred and forty term low-birth-weight (birth-weight < 2,500 g) infants and 94 normal birth-weight infants (2,500- < 4,000 g) were recruited within 48 hours of birth at the main maternity hospital, Kin...

OBJECTIVE To examine the (1) normal ranges of anthropometric and insulin resistance/sensitivity indices (homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance, homeostatic model assessment for insulin sensitivity, and quantitative insulin sensitivity check index) for Iranian pregnant women and their newborns and (2) associations between maternal anthropometric and metabolic values and infants' bi...

BACKGROUND Parental weight and height correlate with offspring birthweight and weight gain, suggesting genetic and environmental influences on fetal growth. The differential contributions of the mother's and father's height and weight to birthweight, or weight gain in infancy, remain unclear and were examined using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. METHODS We calculated z-scores for b...

This cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the prevalence and predictors of overweight and obesity by location of residence among randomly-selected 2,577 urban school girls aged 12-17 years in Rasht, Iran. Data on age, frequency of skipping breakfast per week, physical activity, hours of television viewing, self-perception about body condition, and home address were collected. Birt...

Socioeconomically disadvantaged children are more likely to be of shorter stature and overweight, leading to greater risk of obesity in adulthood. Disentangling the mediatory pathways between socioeconomic disadvantage and childhood size may help in the development of appropriate policies aimed at reducing these health inequalities. We aimed to elucidate the putative mediatory role of birth wei...