[Obesity in children. II. Possible relationship of obesity in childhood to obesity at an older age].

A review is presented of factors predisposing for obesity in childhood and of the probability to maintain early obesity in later years. From literature about retrospective studies it appears that total weight gain in the first year of life is the highest correlated factor with obesity at age 15. The risk of persisting therapy-resistant obesity at that age is not related to a specific critical period during infancy. The risk for metabolic disturbances at later age seems to be greatest when obesity develops earlier and lasts longer. Analysis of the findings among 8-year old Dutch children suggest that various environmental conditions of family-life are at the age determining the prevalence of obesity. Both material and emotional factors as well as aspects of parental education are involved. Some prospective studies demonstrate that for respectively female and male young adults ca 20 and 30 pct of the degree of fatness correlates with skinfold measurements in childhood. Once obesity among Dutch male adolescents at the age of 18 was established, for two-thirds this obesity was maintained at the age of 33. On the other hand for most of the 33 year old obese, obesity had developed after the age of 18.