Year: 2013
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Contemporary childbearing is associated with greater gestational weight gain and postpartum weight retention than in previous decades, potentially leading to a more pronounced effect of childbearing on women's long-term obesity risk. Previous work on the association of childbearing with women's long-term obesity risk mostly examined births in the 1970s and 1980s and produced mixed results. The association of childbearing and obesity incidence in a diverse, contemporary sample of 2731 US women was estimated. METHODS: Propensity-score (PS) matching was used for confounding control when estimating the effect of incident parity (1996-2001) on 7-year incident obesity (BMI≥30 kg/m(2) ) (2001-2008). RESULTS: In the sample, 19.3% of parous women became obese, whereas 16.1% of unmatched nulliparous women did. After PS matching without and with replacement, the differences in obesity incidence were, respectively, 0.0 percentage points (ppts) (95% CI: -4.7 to 4.7) and 0.9 ppts (95% CI: -4.9 to 6.7). Results were similar in analyses of prevalent parity and obesity in 2008 (n = 6601) conducted to explore possible selection bias. CONCLUSIONS: These results imply that, in contemporary US parous women in their late 20s and early 30s, childbearing may not increase obesity incidence.
Source: Obesity
DOI: 10.1002/oby.20593
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, University of Michigan, National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Quality Enhancement Research Initiative, Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, National Institute on Aging, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Awards: G1165640160, Carolina Population Center, G1372666729, G1789099407, G2428068543, G3177719516, G339783423, G3511106470, The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, G5002473419, G597551293, Racial disparities in cancer outcomes: quantifying modifiable mechanisms, G8008223734, Propensity Scores and Preventive Drug Use in the Elderly, G9000006923, G9000042165, UNC Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility
OpenAlex ID: W1514386631