A simple new formula may help calculate the likelihood of obesity later in life for babies, says a new study from researchers at the Imperial College London. The formula incorporates data including the child's birth weight, number of household members and the mother and father's body mass indexes (BMI) to estimate the likelihood of obesity later in life.
For the study, lead researcher Marjo-Riita Jarvelin and colleagues reviewed data collected on over 4,000 children in Finland starting in 1986. They reviewed multiple factors of each child's life to narrow down the common factors amongst kids the grew into obesity.
"We were basically looking at correlations between different factors, how they all come together and what was the predictive value in this analysis," Jarvelin tells FoxNews.com. " . . . Once we add one extra factor, does it improve the model? If you add paternal BMI, does it improve? Then, when you add in maternal smoking, does it improve again? And so on, and so on. Eventually, you will end up with a situation where adding something like maternal age does not improve the model. It's inclusion and exclusion."
The study was published this week in the online edition of PLOS ONE.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Health News
June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.