According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers have determined that teenage mothers are more likely to develop obesity later in life.

“For the first time, we’ve identified our youngest moms as a high-risk group for obesity, which we know to be one of the most debilitating, long-term health issues we face,”Tammy Chang, MD, MPH, MS, clinical lecturer at the University of Michigan Medical School and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar, said in a press release.

Chang and colleagues used the 2001-2010NHANES to investigate associations between overweight and obesity and teenage births among women aged 20 to 59 years. The patients were included if they had at least one live birth, were not pregnant at the time of the survey or recently pregnant (unweighted, n=5,220; weighted, n=48.4 million), researchers wrote.

After performing bivariate analyses, the researchers found that women with a teen birth were significantly more likely to become overweight (RR=1.61; 95% CI, 1.37-1.90) or obese (RR=1.84; 1.56-2.16) compared with women who did not have a teen birth. Adjusted data indicate women with a teen birth continued to be more susceptible for becoming overweight (aRR=1.33; 95% CI, 1.10-1.62) or obese (aRR=1.32, 95% CI, 1.09-1.61) compared with women without a teen birth, they wrote.

“We know that teen pregnancy is tied to certain immediate risks, such as babies having low birth weight and mothers struggling to complete high school — and now we know that it is also associated with poor long-term health outcomes,” Chang said. “Obesity is a prevalent, expensive health problem with detrimental health consequences and it’s difficult to reverse, which is why it’s incredibly important to identify at-risk groups early so that we can intervene.”

The researchers suggest further studies on modifiable physiologic and sociomedical reasons behind early pregnancy and subsequent risk forobesity.

PERSPECTIVE

• This study is unique in that it  investigates whether teen pregnancy could be a risk factor for obesity later in life. The researchers looked at data on about 5200  women aged 20 to 59.

The investigators  sought to examine the difference in the prevalence of obesity or overweight status in women who gave birth between ages 13 and 19 years  vs. those who gave birth at age 20 or later. They found that women who gave birth during their teen years were 32% more likely to be obese compared to women who gave birth at or after age 20

Clearly, this study establishes teen pregnancy as a risk factor for obesity later in life. However, we’ve  to recognize that this is an association study and it doesn’t necessarily suggest cause-and-effect link between teen pregnancy and development of obesity in later life.

The findings are not necessarily surprising because there are common sociographic factors that predispose patients to teen pregnancy as well as obesity (i.e., lower socioeconomic status, school and home environments with limited access to healthy  to healthy foods, limited places to exercise, poor understanding of health in general, or poor access to health care).

The researchers also point out that avoiding teen pregnancy might be one of the ways we can  decrease development of  obesity in adults. We often think about teen pregnancy and short-term consequences such as interruption in  education of the mother and poor access to health care and adequate resourcesbut this study  highlights a long term health risk teen pregnancy may have has on these  teens later in life.

• Seema Kumar, MD, PdE
• Pediatric endocrinology & metabolism
  Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

Source: Endocrine Today