Risk of Becoming Obese in Adulthood Starts from Womb

The lifestyle of a mother during pregnancy can predict whether her child will gain unnecessary weight in adulthood or not, a new study says.

A team of researchers from Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin led by Prof. Andreas Plagemann initiated to find out the factors that put children at a greater risk of gaining unnecessary weight in adulthood.

In order to reach a conclusion, they reviewed 66 studies that looked at 640,000 participants from 26 countries. Factors like maternal overweight, unhealthy eating habits, lack of physical activity or experiencing metabolic disorders in pregnancy were found escalating the risks of giving birth to overweight babies.

Researchers found babies born with a birth weight of 4,000 grams or higher at double the risk of becoming obese in adulthood.

"Even more than before, the course of pregnancy is proving to be the key factor for the health of the child for its whole life," Plagemann said in a news release.

The findings, published in PLOS One, come at a time when the United States is struggling hard to put an end to the epidemic of childhood obesity.  

"The new findings show that preventing overweight for the whole of later life is already possible before birth," Plagemann added.

According to CDC, obesity can bring in a wide range of health problems for children. Cardiovascular diseases, bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, stigmatization and poor self-esteem are some of them.

It is crucial to prevent this occurrence, as children who are heavy in childhood are more likely to grow up as obese adults, thus escalating the risks of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer and osteoarthritis.