Research Centre of Applied and Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine (M.J., J.J., C.G.M., P.W., O.T.R.) and the Departments of Clinical Physiology (O.T.R.) and Medicine (M.J., J.S.A.V.), University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, FIN-20520 Finland; The Menzies Research Institute, AUS-7001 Tasmania, Australia (C.G.M., R.T.); Computational Medicine Research Group, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu and Biocenter Oulu, FIN-90014 Oulu, Finland (P.W.); Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (M.Ki.), University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom; Departments of Clinical Physiology (M.Kä.), Clinical Chemistry (T.L., I.S., J.H.), and Microbiology and Immunology (M.Hu., C.E.), University of Tampere and Tampere University Hospital, FIN-33014 Tampere, Finland; Department of Applied Chemistry and Microbiology, Division of Nutrition (V.M., L.R.) and Institute of Behavioral Sciences/Psychology (M.Hi., L.K.-J.), University of Helsinki, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland; and Department of Sport Sciences (R.T.), University of Jyväskylä, FIN-40014 Jyväskylä, Finland.
Context: Obesity from childhood to adulthood is associated with adverse health later in life. Increased youth BMI is a risk factor for later obesity, but it is unknown whether identification of other risk factors, including recently discovered genetic markers, would help to identify children at risk of developing adult obesity. Objectives: Our objective was to examine the childhood environmental and genetic predictors of adult obesity. Design, Setting, and Participants: We followed 2119 individuals of the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study for up to 27 yr since baseline (1980, age 3- 18 yr). Main Outcome Measure: We evaluated adult obesity [body mass index (BMI) =30 kg/m(2)]. Results: The independent predictors (P