Skip to main content

Table 2 Prevalence and association of high externalizing behavior and obesity at 24 months relative to covariates

From: Externalizing behavior in early childhood and body mass index from age 2 to 12 years: longitudinal analyses of a prospective cohort study

 

n (%)

High externalizing behaviora:

Prevalence (%)

Obesityb:

Prevalence (%)

Odds ratio

(95% confidence interval)c

Total

1189 (100%)d

74/1189 (6.2%)

55/990 (5.6%)

2.9 (1.3, 6.5)

Sex

    

Boys

612 (51.5%)

43/612 (7.0%)

33/490 (6.7%)

2.7 (1.0, 7.6)

Girls

577 (48.5%)

31/577 (5.4%)

22/500 (4.4%)

2.7 (0.7, 10.2)

Race

    

White

973 (81.8%)

50/973 (5.1%)*

39/812 (4.8%)*

1.7 (0.5, 5.8)

Black and Other

216 (18.2%)

24/216 (11.1%)

16/178 (9.0%)

3.6 (1.0, 12.4)

Maternal education e

    

≥College degree

448 (37.7%)

11/448 (2.5%)*

12/378 (3.2%)*

- f

Some college

402 (33.8%)

21/402 (5.2%)

20/341 (5.9%)

1.1 (0.1, 8.7)

≤High school graduate

339 (28.5%)

42/339 (12.4%)

23/271 (8.5%)

3.5 (1.3, 9.4)

Household poverty status at 24 months g

   

≥poverty threshold

994 (84.8%)

44/994 (4.4%)*

38/835 (4.6%)*

3.3 (1.2, 8.9)

< poverty threshold

178 (15.2%)

26/178 (14.6%)

17/143 (11.9%)

1.6 (0.4, 6.2)

Maternal depression at 24 months h

   

No

926 (83.2%)

38/926 (4.1%)*

41/776 (5.3%)

2.8 (0.9, 8.5)

Yes

187 (16.8%)

28/187 (15.0%)

10/152 (6.6%)

2.6 (0.6, 11.0)

  1. *χ2 or Fisher's exact test, P < 0.05; Fisher's exact test when expected cell frequency < 5.
  2. a High externalizing behavior defined as Child Behavior Checklist T score ≥ 65 at 24 months.
  3. b Obesity defined as BMI-for-age at or above the 95th percentile of the sex-specific CDC BMI-for-age growth charts.
  4. c Odds ratio (95% Confidence Interval) from logistic regression models, predicting odds of obesity at 24 months with high externalizing behavior (≥ 65) at 24 months relative to lower levels of externalizing behavior (< 65).
  5. d Restricted to children who are not missing information on behavior problems at 24 months and who had 1 or more BMI measurements between 24 months and 6th grade (n = 1189); 199 of these children were missing BMI at 24 months.
  6. e Maternal education at child's birth.
  7. f Unable to estimate within this strata due to data sparseness.
  8. g Seventeen with missing information excluded.
  9. h Maternal depression defined as CES-D score > 16; Seventy-six with missing information excluded.