NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Young adults born via Cesarean section are more likely to be obese than those delivered vaginally, suggesting C-sections could be feeding the obesity epidemic, researchers have found.
But the theory is controversial. One expert cautioned that scientists are still a long way from pinning the expanding waistlines on higher rates of C-sections.
In the new study, Brazilian researchers found that among more than 2,000 23- to 25-year-olds, 15 percent of those delivered via C-section were obese compared to 10 percent of those born naturally.
The team looked at a number of other factors that could potentially explain the connection, like heavier birth weight, or income and education levels (more-educated mothers had a higher C-section rate).
But even after accounting for these factors, C-section remained linked to a 58-percent increase in the risk of adulthood obesity, according Dr. Helena Goldani and colleagues.
The findings do not prove cause-and-effect, Goldani, of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, told Reuters Health in an email. And there could still be other explanations for the finding, she said.
Still, it’s possible that C-sections could directly affect the risk of becoming obese later in life, the researchers speculate.
That’s because infants born via C-section
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