Height, skeletal maturation and adiposity in adolescents with high relative weight at one year of age

SummaryThe relationship between adolescent obesity and both stature and skeletal maturation was examined within a population of urban black adolescents for whom growth data in early childhood were available. From a larger population of approximately 4400 boys and girls, the 6–8% demonstrating the heaviest weight for observed length at 12 months of age were followed up between 9 and 15 years of age.The children were divided into obese and non-obese groups on the basis of triceps skinfold thickness at the time of follow-up. Their earlier growth measurements, together with adolescent heights and skeletal ages, were then compared. Only the younger sample of obese males were found to have been significantly taller than their non-obese peers at seven years of age and at the time of follow-up during adolescence. The obese females had not been significantly taller than their non-obese peers at any age.Keeping chronological age as a covariate, the contribution of one year length, adolescent skeletal age, and adolescent adiposity to height in adolescence was examined by means of linear regression analyses.In agreement with earlier reports, these longitudinal data indicate a consistent but minimal height advantage for youngsters with early onset obesity when compared to their age and sex-matched non-obese peers. The height advantage can be parcelled out almost equally to differences in length by one year of age and to differences in rate of skeletal maturation during adolescence. In our analyses, adolescent skinfold thickness, as an index of degree of “overnutrition”, did not substitute for either of those variables or contribute more than a very small amount of additional information to the prediction of adolescent height.