Summary of project:
The prevalence of overweight in children and adolescents has dramatically increased during the last 30 years, and is strongly associated with psychosocial and physical complications, and increased risk of overweight and obesity in adulthood. Numerous epidemiologic studies have shown that both genetic and environmental factors influence the degree of overweight.
However, new Danish analyses of the obesity development among school children and draftees have revealed that the epidemic cannot directly be attributed to the progress in the society towards a more and more ‘obesigenic’ environment. Therefore, increased focus on the embryos growth, as response to the intrauterine environment that may establish a lasting predisposition for later obesity, has currently become a scientific topic. Several studies have shown that the mother’s weight and weight change during pregnancy, her lifestyle habits, her psychosocial condition and exposure to medicine and hormone disturbing drugs, are factors that may have an adverse effect on the embryos development. However, the majority of studies have exclusively concentrated on the effect of the offspring’s birth weight, without considering the effect of timing during pregnancy and no proof are available on how these factors influences the offspring risk of obesity later in life. The present study uses the Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC), containing detailed information on the pregnancy from 101.042 Danish women, and about the growth and nutrition in their offspring at 5 mo, 12 mo, and 7-8 years of age. This data set will provide pioneering result, identifying putative contributing factors for the alarming worldwide increase in childhood overweight and obesity.

Start of project: 010906
End of project: 010910