Childhood Obesity Research Paper

Effects of Childhood Obesity on Adult Disease and Death

Toby Bradford

KINE 4331

Tyler Garner

January 4, 2015

Obesity has numerous negative effects on the body throughout one’s life, especially when one has been obese for an extended period of time. The world’s life expectancy has been on a rise for many years now, but the increasing rate of obesity in the world is likely to change that. This paper is going to focus on how childhood obesity is supposed to affect a person’s rate of morbidity and mortality when they reach adulthood. Given what is known about the adverse effects of obesity, it isn’t difficult to assume that being obese as a child can greatly impact one’s health and risk for disease, both immediately as well as later

on during adulthood.

Must and Strauss (1999) looked into the many adverse health effects of childhood obesity.

They looked into the immediate consequences, intermediate consequences, and long term consequences. With the immediate consequences, they found that the child could get hepatitis, gallstones, greater intracranial pressure, and gallstones, all before even reaching adulthood. With the intermediate consequences Must and Strauss observe that, according to the Muscatine Study, when compared to non-obese kids, children whom are obese are 10 times more likely to attain hypertension during adulthood. They also find that anywhere from twenty five to fifty percent of obese children remain obese as adults. With the long-term consequences they found that when obese as a child, adult women were more likely to attain arthritis and hip fractures, adult men were more likely to have gout and colon cancer, and both male and females were at greater risk of developing atherosclerosis and heart

disease.
Franks, Hanson, Knowler, Sievers, Bennett, and Looker (2010) wanted to know if they could predict premature death by evaluating the blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol levels, and glucose tolerance. What they found with BMI is that the children in the higher percentile range had a significantly increased rate of death compared to the children in the lower percentile range. In the end, they found that BMI, high blood pressure, and glucose intolerance in children had a significant impact on premature death; whereas high cholesterol in children had no relationship with premature death.
Gunnell, Frankel, Nanchahal, Peters, and Smith (1998) did a 57 year follow up to the Carnegie Survey. They wanted to find if there was a relationship between childhood BMI and cardiovascular and all-cause death in adults. What they found is that there is a positive relationship between childhood obesity and adult mortality. The reasoning they give for this is that being obese as a child greatly increases ones risk of being obese as an adult, which has a strong relationship with the development of coronary artery disease.
Freedman, Khan, Dietz, Srinivasan, and Berenson (2001) looked into the relationship of levels of insulin, blood pressure, and lipids in adults, and their BMI during childhood. Of their sample population, 77% of the participants that were obese as children continued into adulthood obese. Being obese as a child was related to adult risk factors, but the correlation was weak at r=.1. They also measured normal weight children that became obese as adults. When these normal weight children became obese during adulthood, they had an even higher risk factor level than that of the adults who were also obese as children. Due to this data, they decided that additional data would be needed to decide if being obese as a child increased their risk of coronary heart disease in adulthood.
Dietz (1998) looks into the effects of childhood obesity on the morbidity and mortality of adults. He finds that men who were obese during childhood, death from colon cancer and cardiovascular disease are increased. Likewise, both men and women who are obese as children have higher mortality rates due to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Dietz finds that 50 percent of the obese children continue to be obese during adulthood. He concludes that because obese children are likely to be obese as adults, they are at a higher risk for disease and death during adulthood.

In conclusion, it is obvious that being obese as a child greatly increases the likelihood of being obese as an adult.

It is also obvious that being obese as an adult greatly increases the likelihood of acquiring morbidities such as cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease as well as overall mortality. What has not been found in any of these studies is an increased risk of morbidity and mortality in a person who was obese as a child and no longer obese as an adult. Only the study from Must and Strauss (1999) discuss the devastating effects found in children due to obesity. But even then, the population in their study was on the very extreme end of childhood obesity to the extent that the child had to actually go to a pediatric specialty clinic due to his severe obesity. In order to truly find the effects of being obese as a child on your health later in life, given that the weight is lost before reaching adulthood, more research needs to be done and more data needs to be

collected.

Works Cited:
Dietz, W. H. (1998). Childhood weight affects adult morbidity and mortality. The Journal of nutrition, 128(2), 411S-414S.
Franks, P. W., Hanson, R. L., Knowler, W. C., Sievers, M. L., Bennett, P. H., & Looker, H. C. (2010). Childhood obesity, other cardiovascular risk factors, and premature death. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(6), 485-493.
Freedman, D. S., Khan, L. K., Dietz, W. H., Srinivasan, S. R., & Berenson, G. S. (2001). Relationship of childhood obesity to coronary heart disease risk factors in adulthood: the Bogalusa Heart Study. Pediatrics, 108(3), 712-718.
Gunnell, D. J., Frankel, S. J., Nanchahal, K., Peters, T. J., & Smith, G. D. (1998). Childhood obesity and adult cardiovascular mortality: a 57-y follow-up study based on the Boyd Orr cohort. The American journal of clinical nutrition,67(6), 1111-1118.
Must, A., & Strauss, R. S. (1999). Risks and consequences of childhood and adolescent obesity. International journal of obesity and related metabolic disorders: journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 23, S2-11.