Background and Aims
Growth pattern in early life is increasingly recognized as a factor of obesity in later life. This study aimed to identify the association between growth pattern in the first year of life with anthropometry and body composition during adolescence. 

Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted in 303 children aged 11-13 years from 12 urban schools selected through stratified-cluster sampling. Weight, height and waist circumference were measured. Fat-mass (FM) was assessed using population-specific prediction equations following Bio-electrical Impedance Analysis. Birthweight and weight at 12-months were extracted from the Child-Health-Development-Record. An increase in weight SD score (SDS) by ≥0.67 between birth and 12-months was defined as accelerated growth. 

Results
The mean age was 12.2 years (SD 0.87) and 52.5% (n=159) were females. 108 (31.3%) had accelerated growth during the first year of life. High (>3.5kg) birthweight was associated with overweight/obesity in adolescence (OR=8.9, 95%CI 2.7-29.5). Accelerated growth, after adjusting for birthweight, was significantly associated with overweight/obesity (OR=2.2, 95%CI 1.2-4.0) and high %FM (OR=1.8, 95%CI 1.04-3.1), but not with height-SDS, in adolescence. Low-birthweight children with accelerated growth had higher %FM at 11-13 years as compared to those with normal growth during the first year of life (71% Vs 22.2%, p=0.013).

Conclusions and Recommendations
Accelerated growth in early life, is associated with obesity and increased FM but not with linear growth in adolescence, and therefore, seems to occur through increasing fat-mass than the fat-free-mass. Hence, it is important to ensure optimum growth rate during the first year of life.

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN EARLY GROWTH PATTERN AND LATER OBESITY IN SRI LANKAN ADOLESCENTS