Caesarean births, common in Hong Kong, linked to higher childhood obesity risk
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Children born by caesarean appear to be at a higher risk of becoming obese, especially when compared to their siblings born via vaginal birth, according to recent research by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. This finding has particular significance for Hong Kong, which has one of the highest rates of caesarean delivery in the world.
In the study, which appears online in JAMA Pediatrics, 22,068 children born to 15,271 women were followed up until early adulthood through questionnaires. Among the children studied, 4,921 were born by caesarean delivery. Women who had caesarean delivery had a higher BMI before pregnancy and were more likely to have gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia and pregnancy-induced high blood pressure.
Compared with vaginal birth, caesarean delivery was associated with a 15 per cent increase in the risk of obesity in children after adjusting for mitigating factors, the study found. Within families, children born by caesarean were 64 per cent more likely to be obese than their siblings born by vaginal delivery.
Children born by vaginal birth to women who had had a previous caesarean delivery were 31 per cent less likely to be obese compared with those children born to women with repeated caesarean deliveries.