176581 Developmental Trajectories of BMI During Childhood: Role of Household Intimate Partner Violence

Monday, October 27, 2008: 8:50 AM

Hee-Jin Jun, DS , Channing Laboratory, Harvard University/Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, MA
Heather L. Corliss, MPH, PhD , Adolescent Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA
Renee Boynton-Jarrett, MD, ScD , Department of General Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA
S. Bryn Austin, ScD , Adolescent Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA
Janet Rich-Edwards, DS , Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health/Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Boston, MA
Rosalind Wright, MD , Chaning Laboratory, Boston, MA
Objective: Evidence suggests that childhood adversity, including violence exposure, may contribute to obesity in later life. Our goal was to characterize developmental trajectories of BMI in children followed through adolescence to assess the relationship between timing of exposure to household intimate partner violence (IPV) and BMI trajectories.

Research Methods and Procedures: Participants consisted of 6700 girls and 5717 boys in the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS), who were 9 to 14 years old at baseline in 1996 and followed to 2003. Repeated measures of weight and height were used to calculate BMI trajectories with a general growth mixture modeling approach. Household IPV was measured by maternal report of IPV at each calendar year, which was then linked to the child's age.

Results: Four distinct BMI trajectories were identified separately for girls and for boys: 1) normal-growth, 2) normal-to-obese, 3) obese-to-overweight, and 4) consistent-obese. Compared to boys not exposed to violence, boys exposed to household IPV before age 5 were at increased risk of being in the normal-to-obese group [OR=2.2; 95% CI=1.4-3.4] and boys exposed to household IPV between 6-11 were at increased risk of consistent-obese (OR=2.3; 95% CI=1.0-5.3) after adjusting for a number of confounders. Among the girls, no relationship was observed between household IPV and BMI trajectories.

Discussion: These data suggest that exposure to household IPV may increase the risk of being in a high-risk obesity trajectory among boys. This relationship was not evident among the girls.

Learning Objectives:
1. Identify key longitudinal trajectories of BMI during adolescence among GUTS cohort participants 2. Describe patterns of BMI trajectories and their association with exposure to intimate partner violence in the home in childhood. 3. Understand the importance of findings for developing programs to reduce obesity in the youth population

Keywords: Adolescents, Obesity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I designed and conceived the study and conducted the analysis
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Adolescent Health
See more of: Epidemiology