A genetic study tracking children from age one to 18 finds that growth patterns over time, not just one BMI reading, may offer a clearer window into future risks such as obesity, diabetes, unhealthy cholesterol and heart disease
A recent genetic study has found that nearly a quarter of how a child’s body mass index, or BMI, changes over time may be influenced by common genetic variants. More importantly, it suggests that a child’s pattern of growth across the years may reveal more about future health risk than a single BMI reading taken at one age. The study, published in Nature Communications, analysed 65,930 BMI measurements from 6,291 children in the UK and tracked how BMI changed from age one to 18. (BMI, or body mass index, is a simple measure that compares a person’s weight to their height to estimate whether their body size falls within a healthy range).