Published 12 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a699
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a699

Research

Physical control and coordination in childhood and adult obesity: longitudinal birth cohort study

¹ Department of Cardiology, Örebro University Hospital, SE-701 85 Örebro, Sweden, ² Clinical Research Centre, Örebro University Hospital, ³ Department of Primary Care and Social Medicine, Charing Cross Hospital, Imperial College, London, ⁴ Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Department of Medicine at Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Objective To identify whether measures of childhood physical control and coordination as markers of neurological function are associated with obesity in adults.

Design Longitudinal birth cohort study.

Setting National child development study in Great Britain.

Participants 11 042 people born during one week in 1958.

Main outcome measure Obesity at age 33 years defined as body mass index 30.

Results Among 7990 cohort members at age 7 years, teachers reported that poor hand control, poor coordination, and clumsiness "certainly applied" more often among those who would be obese adults, producing adjusted odds ratios of 1.57 (95% confidence interval 1.13 to 2.20; P=0.008) for poor hand control, 2.30 (1.52 to 3.46; P<0.001) for poor coordination, and 3.91 (2.61 to 5.87; P<0.001) for clumsiness. Among 6875 participants who had doctor administered assessments with continuous scores at age 11 years, poorer function was associated with later obesity, indicated by adjusted odds ratios (change in risk per unit increase in score) of 0.88 (0.81 to 0.96; P=0.003) for copying designs, 0.84 (0.78 to 0.91; P<0.001) for marking squares, and 1.14 (1.06 to 1.24; P<0.001) for picking up matches (a higher score indicates poor function in this test). Further adjustment for contemporaneous body mass index at age 7 or 11 years did not eliminate statistical significance for any of the associations.

Conclusion Some aspects of poorer neurological function associated with adult obesity may have their origins in childhood.

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