Table 2.
Prevalence and association of high externalizing behavior and obesity at 24 months relative to covariates
| n (%) | High externalizing behaviora: Prevalence (%) |
Obesityb: Prevalence (%) |
Odds ratio (95% confidence interval)c |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 1189 (100%)d | 74/1189 (6.2%) | 55/990 (5.6%) | 2.9 (1.3, 6.5) |
| Sex | ||||
| Boys | 612 (51.5%) | 43/612 (7.0%) | 33/490 (6.7%) | 2.7 (1.0, 7.6) |
| Girls | 577 (48.5%) | 31/577 (5.4%) | 22/500 (4.4%) | 2.7 (0.7, 10.2) |
| Race | ||||
| White | 973 (81.8%) | 50/973 (5.1%)* | 39/812 (4.8%)* | 1.7 (0.5, 5.8) |
| Black and Other | 216 (18.2%) | 24/216 (11.1%) | 16/178 (9.0%) | 3.6 (1.0, 12.4) |
| Maternal educatione | ||||
| ≥College degree | 448 (37.7%) | 11/448 (2.5%)* | 12/378 (3.2%)* | - f |
| Some college | 402 (33.8%) | 21/402 (5.2%) | 20/341 (5.9%) | 1.1 (0.1, 8.7) |
| ≤High school graduate | 339 (28.5%) | 42/339 (12.4%) | 23/271 (8.5%) | 3.5 (1.3, 9.4) |
| Household poverty status at 24 monthsg | ||||
| ≥poverty threshold | 994 (84.8%) | 44/994 (4.4%)* | 38/835 (4.6%)* | 3.3 (1.2, 8.9) |
| < poverty threshold | 178 (15.2%) | 26/178 (14.6%) | 17/143 (11.9%) | 1.6 (0.4, 6.2) |
| Maternal depression at 24 monthsh | ||||
| No | 926 (83.2%) | 38/926 (4.1%)* | 41/776 (5.3%) | 2.8 (0.9, 8.5) |
| Yes | 187 (16.8%) | 28/187 (15.0%) | 10/152 (6.6%) | 2.6 (0.6, 11.0) |
*χ2 or Fisher's exact test, P < 0.05; Fisher's exact test when expected cell frequency < 5.
a High externalizing behavior defined as Child Behavior Checklist T score ≥ 65 at 24 months.
b Obesity defined as BMI-for-age at or above the 95th percentile of the sex-specific CDC BMI-for-age growth charts.
c Odds ratio (95% Confidence Interval) from logistic regression models, predicting odds of obesity at 24 months with high externalizing behavior (≥ 65) at 24 months relative to lower levels of externalizing behavior (< 65).
d Restricted to children who are not missing information on behavior problems at 24 months and who had 1 or more BMI measurements between 24 months and 6th grade (n = 1189); 199 of these children were missing BMI at 24 months.
e Maternal education at child's birth.
f Unable to estimate within this strata due to data sparseness.
g Seventeen with missing information excluded.
h Maternal depression defined as CES-D score > 16; Seventy-six with missing information excluded.