ABSTRACT
LEA A. CUPUL-UICAB, MARK A. KLEBANOFF, JOHN W. BROCK, AND MATTHEW P. LONGNECKER
6.1 INTRODUCTION
Childhood obesity is of public health concern worldwide (Lobstein et al. 2004). In the United States, the prevalence of obesity among children 6-11 years of age increased from 4% in 1971-1974 to 20% in 2007-2008 (Orsi et al. 2011). Obesity during childhood is predictive of obesity in adulthood (Orsi et al. 2011). Similar to obese adults, children who are obese are at increased risk of developing adverse health conditions such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and asthma (Lobstein et al. 2004). Excess energy intake and low levels of physical activity are well documented risk factors for childhood obesity (Lobstein et al. 2004). The role of an adverse fetal environment (e.g., maternal diabetes,
malnutrition, smoking) in the programming of childhood obesity is supported by previous studies (Huang et al. 2007; Oken and Gillman 2003). Emerging literature from animal models also suggests that prenatal exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (e.g., tributyltin) might predispose the exposed subjects to greater accumulation of body fat later in life (Grun and Blumberg 2009).
