Patel, RTilling, KLawlor, D.AHowe, L.DHughes, R.ABogdanovich, NMatush, LNicoli, EOken, EKramer, M.SMartin, R.MOBSTETRICS & GYNAECOLOGY2020-10-222020-10-222018Patel, R, Tilling, K, Lawlor, D.A, Howe, L.D, Hughes, R.A, Bogdanovich, N, Matush, L, Nicoli, E, Oken, E, Kramer, M.S, Martin, R.M (2018). Socioeconomic differences in childhood BMI trajectories in Belarus. International Journal of Obesity 42 (9) : 1651-1660. ScholarBank@NUS Repository. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-018-0042-003070565https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/179026Objective: To examine associations of parental socioeconomic position with early-life offspring body mass index (BMI) trajectories in a middle-income country. Subjects: Overall, 12,385 Belarusian children born 1996–97 and enrolled in a randomised breastfeeding promotion trial at birth, with 3–14 measurements of BMI from birth to 7 years. Methods: Cohort analysis in which exposures were parental education (common secondary or less; advanced secondary or partial university; completed university) and occupation (manual; non-manual) at birth, and the outcome was BMI z-score trajectories estimated using multilevel linear spline models, controlling for trial arm, location, parental BMI, maternal smoking status and number of older siblings. Results: Infants born to university-educated mothers were heavier at birth than those born to secondary school-educated mothers [by 0.13 BMI z-score units (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.07, 0.19) for girls and 0.11 (95% CI: 0.05, 0.17) for boys; equivalent for an infant of average birth length to 43 and 38 g, respectively]. Between the ages of 3–7 years children of the most educated mothers had larger BMI increases than children of the least educated mothers. At age 7 years, after controlling for trial arm and location, children of university-educated mothers had higher BMIs than those born to secondary school-educated mothers by 0.11 z-score (95% CI: 0.03, 0.19) among girls and 0.18 (95% CI: 0.1, 0.27) among boys, equivalent to differences in BMI for a child of average height of 0.19 and 0.26 kg/m2, respectively. After further controlling for parental BMI, these differences attenuated to 0.08 z-score (95% CI: 0, 0.16) and 0.16 z-score (95% CI: 0.07, 0.24), respectively, but changed very little after additional adjustment for number of older siblings and mother’s smoking status. Associations were similar when based on paternal educational attainment and highest household occupation. Conclusions: In Belarus, consistent with some middle-income countries, higher socioeconomic position was associated with greater BMI trajectories from age 3 onwards. © 2018, The Authors.Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ArticleBelarusbirth weightbody heightbody masschildchildhoodcohort analysiscontrolled studyeducational statusfemalehigh schoolhumaninfantmajor clinical studymalemiddle income countrymothernewbornparentpreschool childpriority journalprogenyschool childsex differencesocial statusuniversitychild developmentepidemiologyphysiologysocioeconomicsBody Mass IndexChildChild DevelopmentChild, PreschoolCohort StudiesEducational StatusFemaleHumansInfantInfant, NewbornMaleRepublic of BelarusSocioeconomic FactorsArticle