Using data from adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I, Kenneth Ferraro and Roland J. Thorpe of Purdue University and Jody A. Wilkinson of the University of Arizona examined the risk of severe obesity and mortality of 6,767 persons over a span of 20 years. They found that one-third of the respondents with severe obesity were overweight as children. Their study was reported in the March 2003 issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences.
"Moreover," the researchers noted, "the link may well be underestimated in the present analysis because of the possibility of underreporting childhood overweight." According to Ferraro and his colleagues, being overweight during ages 12-13 "is a stronger predictor than overweight at younger ages, but overweight at 15-16 has even a stronger relationship with adult obesity." Why childhood overweight is linked to severe obesity needs additional study, but it could be from parental behavior, learned behavior, genetics, or some combination thereof.
According Ferraro and others, "The age range of 45-64 emerged as the most likely period of the life course for incident severe obesity; severe obesity is rare past the age 75." People 75 and older lose weight associated with disease incidence and its treatment, and people with severe obesity are less likely to live into older ages.
The findings in this study demonstrate the importance of childhood overweight as a risk for severe obesity and mortality over the life course. Nevertheless, overweight children who did not become severely obese as adults were not at greater risk of mortality.
The Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences is a refereed publication of The Gerontological Society of America, the national organization of professionals in the field of aging.
The article abstract is available online at http://psychsoc.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/58/2/S110.