Developmental trajectories of body mass index since childhood and health-related quality of life in young adulthood: Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study

The association between long-term BMI changes since childhood and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in adulthood is still unclear. This study aimed to examine the association between identified BMI trajectories and HRQoL.

A population-based cohort of 1938 eligible children (3–18 years) and their parents have been repeatedly followed up for 18 years. Offspring BMI trajectories were identified using group-based trajectory models. HRQoL was evaluated in offspring aged 21–36 years using SF-12V2. Using quantile regression analysis, the associations of the identified BMI trajectories and HRQoL in young adulthood were examined.

In males, persistent increasing overweight/obese group was negatively associated with 30th, 40th, 50th, and 60th percentiles of physical component summary (PCS) score distribution (β = − 2.60, p = 0.006; β = − 2.01, p = 0.005; β = − 1.86, p = 0.001; β = − 1.98, p = 0.009, respectively). A similar result was observed only in the 40th percentile of PCS distribution for the progressive overweight group (β = − 1.03, p = 0.022). In addition, the progressive overweight group in males showed a positive association with the upper tail of mental component summary (MCS) score distribution specifically for the 90th percentile (β = 1.15, p = 0.036). Regarding females, the current results indicated that the 90th percentile of MCS distributions was decreased in the persistent increasing overweight/obese group for females (β = − 1.83, p = 0.024). In addition, the progressive overweight group in females had a positive association with lower (30th and 40th) percentiles of PCS distribution (β = 1.29, p = 0.034, and β = 1.15, p = 0.030, respectively).

A sex-specific conditional association between developmental BMI trajectories from childhood and HRQoL in young adulthood was observed in physical and mental HRQoL.