Adolescence · Tracking

Objective: To test the hypothesis that adolescent body mass index (BMI) tracks into adulthood and can be used as a predictor of obesity and/or central adiposity in adult-hood. Method: A prospective cohort study following up 111 female and 84 male subjects who participated in di-etary and anthropometric surveys when aged 12 years (in 1979–1981) and 33 years (in 2000–2001). At both time-points, height and weight were measured and BMI cal-culated. At 33 years, waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference were also measured and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) calculated. Results: In the male and female partic-ipants, BMI at 12 years was associated significantly with BMI at 33 years (R = 0.58 and 0.53, respectively, both p < 0.01) and WC at 33 years (R = 0.58 and 0.53, both p < 0.01). The probability of being an obese adult increase