BACKGROUND Several studies have shown that girls who undergo menarche at a relatively young age tend to be more obese as adults. However, because childhood (pre-menarcheal) levels of weight and height are associated with an earlier menarche, the increased prevalence of adult obesity among early maturers may largely reflect the persistence of childhood obesity into adulthood. METHODS We examin...

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that obesity is associated with impaired cognitive outcomes in the pre-school years. METHODS Associations were examined between weight status at age 3-5 years and cognitive performance at age 5 years. Cognitive outcome measures were tests of pattern construction (visuospatial skills), naming vocabulary (expressive language skills), and picture similarity (reas...

Obesity depends on a close interplay between genetic and environmental factors. However, it is unknown how these factors interact to cause changes in the obese condition during the progression of obesity from the neonatal to the aged individual. We have utilized Mest and Sfrp5 genes, two genes highly correlated with adipose tissue expansion in diet-induced obesity, to characterize the obese con...

BACKGROUND Childhood obesity increases the risk of obesity in adulthood and is associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors. Our aim was to assess the early life risk factors associated with overweight and obesity among preschool children. METHODS In this case-control study, from the 1087 preschool children measured, age, sex and ethnicity matched 71 cases and 71 controls were recruite...