Maternal Short Stature Does Not Predict Their Children’s Fatness Indicators in a Nutritional Dual-Burden Sample of Urban Mexican Maya

The co-existence of very short stature due to poor chronic environment in early life and obesity is becoming a public health concern in rapidly transitioning populations with high levels of poverty. Individuals who have very short stature seem to be at an increased risk of obesity in times of relative caloric abundance. Increasing evidence shows that an individual is influenced by exposures in previous generations. This study assesses whether maternal poor early life environment predicts her child’s adiposity using cross sectional design on Maya schoolchildren aged 7–9 and their mothers (n 5 57 pairs). We compared maternal chronic early life environment (stature) with her child’s
adiposity (body mass index [BMI] z-score, waist circumference z-score, and percentage body fat) using multiple linear regression, controlling for the child’s own environmental exposures (household sanitation and maternal parity).