. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Jan 13.

Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Cardiol. 2011 Jun 14;8(9):513–525. doi: 10.1038/nrcardio.2011.86

Table 1.

Longitudinal studies demonstrating persistence of adiposity from childhood to adulthood

Study	Baseline year; study size (n); participant age	Follow-up year; study size (n); participant age	Association between childhood obesity and adulthood obesity	Unique data or comments
Follow-up of the Harvard Growth Study¹²	1922–1935; 508; 13–18 years	1988; 425; 72 ± 1 years	52% of survivors who were obese in youth remained obese in old age; adolescent BMI predicted adverse outcomes independent of adult BMI	55 year follow-up; all-cause and CHD mortality in men; weight unknown in subjects deceased at follow-up (32%)
Bogalusa Heart Study^{14,17,21,22,24,55}	Multiple; 16,000 overall; 0–17 years	Multiple; variable; Up to 38 years	Baseline BMI and adiposity correlated with adult BMI (r=0.66); 62% in highest childhood BMI quartile persisted to highest BMI quartile in adulthood; highest childhood BMI and age most likely to persist to high adult BMI; even BMI at 2–5 years correlated with adult BMI	NHW and AA, community-based study
NHLBI Growth and Health Study⁵⁰	1986; 2,379 girls; 9–10 years	1998–2001; 2,054; yearly until 21–23 years	Overweight girls were 11–30-times more likely to be obese adults; relationship between CVD risk factors and weight already present at 9 years of age	NHW and AA, females; large cohort; good retention
Minneapolis Children's Blood Pressure Study⁷⁸	1977; 1,207; 7.7 years	1993–1995; 679; 23.6 years	Childhood and adulthood BMI and weight correlated; childhood weight gain related to adult CVD risk factors	Data on IR
Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study^128,129	1980; 3,596; 3–18 years	2001; 2,283; 24–39 years	Childhood BMI correlated with adult BMI (r=0.45, P<0.0001); obesity persisted from youth to adulthood	Large cohort; good retention; >20 years of follow up
Muscatine Coronary Risk Factor Project^130,131	1971; 8,909; 9–18 years	1981; 2,631; 23, 28, and 33 years	Correlation between child and adult obesity quintiles: r=0.51–0.88 for weight; r=0.58–0.91 for BMI; 49–70% and 48–75% remained in upper quintiles; 31% from upper/lower quintiles changed groups	Population based; 15–24 years of follow up
Copenhagen Male Draftees Study¹³²	1937–1963; 93,800; 7 years	1988; 1,400; time of military draft	Compared 429 severely obese young adults to 1% random sample of draftees; risk of adult obesity increased exponentially over childhood BMI range	Large population-based cohort; males
Australian Schools Health and Fitness Survey¹³³	1985; 8,498; 7–15 years	2001–2005; 4,571; 24–34 years	RR=4.7 for obese child to become obese adult; proportion of adult obesity attributed to childhood obesity 6.4% in males and 12.6% in females	Australian cohort
1958 British Birth Cohort¹³⁴	1958; 17,378; birth	1965–1991; 11,407; 7, 11, 16, 23, and 33 years	Correlation between child (7 years) and adult (33 years) BMI (r=0.33 male, r=0.37 female), but only 17–18% of obese 33-year-olds had been obese at 7 years. Having two obese parents increased risk of adult obesity	British cohort
New Delhi Birth Cohort¹³⁵	1969–1972; 2,584; birth	1998–2002; 1,492; 26–32 years	Greater childhood BMI gain from 5–14 years associated with MetS, IGT, DM, but none obese at 12 years	Indian cohort
Newton Girls Study¹³⁶	1965; 793, 8–9 years	1998; 448, 42.1 years	Premenarchal weight status main influence on adult weight status	Longitudinal data on females

Abbreviations: AA, African American; CVD, cardiovascular disease; DM, diabetes mellitus; IGT, impaired glucose tolerance; IR, insulin resistance; MetS, metabolic syndrome; NHLBI, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, NHW, non-Hispanic white; RR, relative risk.