{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T22:24:11Z","timestamp":1790634251913,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,19]],"date-time":"2022-07-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1658188800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001659","name":"German Research Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["CRC1052 (No 209933838)"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CRC1052 (No 209933838)"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001659","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"German Federal Ministry of Education and Research","award":["01EO1501"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["01EO1501"]}]},{"name":"German Federal Ministry of Education and Research","award":["01GL1906"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["01GL1906"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004895","name":"European Social Fund","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004895","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100008530","name":"European Regional Development Fund","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100008530","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100014913","name":"Free State of Saxony","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100014913","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000780","name":"European Union","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000780","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"LIFE \u2013 Leipzig Research Centre for Civilization Diseases, University of Leipzig"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n<jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Birth order and having at least one sibling are known to be associated with an increased risk for development of overweight. However, there are no studies assessing pre- and postnatal factors for developing overweight within families. Therefore, the present study aimed to analyse the association of the mother\u2019s weight gain during pregnancy, prepregnancy BMI, mother\u2019s age at birth, breastfeeding, age gap between siblings, and physical activity together with sibling-related characteristics on the development of overweight in children and adolescents.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n<jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Data were obtained from the longitudinal LIFE Child cohort. The study sample included n = 1932 children, stratified into first-born (n = 578), second-born (n = 608), third-or-later-born single-born siblings (n = 162), only children (n = 526), and twin children (n = 58). Children with chronic or syndromic diseases, born prematurely or from mothers with gestational diabetes were excluded. Data were adjusted for multiple children per family using mixed models. Pregnancy weight gain, prepregnancy BMI and mother\u2019s age were considered prenatal co-variates. Postnatal factors included the duration of breastfeeding and the children\u2019s physical activity level.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n<jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Particularly until the onset of puberty, the BMI-SDS differed between single-born siblings, only children and twins, and increased with birth order. Compared to children with siblings, only children exhibited a strong increase in BMI-SDS starting at age nine. A higher age gap between siblings was associated with a higher BMI-SDS in second- and third-or-later-born children. Single-born siblings had the highest rate and duration of breastfeeding. Physical activity was highest in twins and third-or-later-born children and lowest in only children. In a multivariate model, being an only child showed a highly significant association with BMI-SDS.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n<jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The present study demonstrated that siblings had a lower BMI-SDS than only children did. For single-born siblings, the association between birth order and increased BMI-SDS seemed to persist only up to 11 years of age.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0271676","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,19]],"date-time":"2022-07-19T17:30:26Z","timestamp":1658251826000},"page":"e0271676","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Having siblings promotes a more healthy weight status\u2014Whereas only children are at greater risk for higher BMI in later childhood"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Claudia","family":"Bohn","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mandy","family":"Vogel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tanja","family":"Poulain","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andreas","family":"Hiemisch","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wieland","family":"Kiess","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6001-0356","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Antje","family":"K\u00f6rner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,19]]},"reference":[{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0271676.ref001","first-page":"e223","article-title":"Fighting obesity in children from European World Health Organization member states. 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A nationally representative study in rural China.","volume":"12","author":"J Hu","year":"2017","journal-title":"PloS one."},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0271676.ref019","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"117","DOI":"10.1093\/nutrit\/nux060","article-title":"Birth order and number of siblings and their association with overweight and obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis.","volume":"76","author":"FO Meller","year":"2018","journal-title":"Nutr Rev"},{"key":"pone.0271676.ref020","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1021","DOI":"10.1186\/1471-2458-12-1021","article-title":"The LIFE child study: a life course approach to disease and health","volume":"12","author":"M Quante","year":"2012","journal-title":"BMC public health."},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0271676.ref021","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"145","DOI":"10.1007\/s10654-016-0216-9","article-title":"The LIFE Child study: a population-based perinatal and pediatric cohort in Germany","volume":"32","author":"T Poulain","year":"2017","journal-title":"Eur J Epidemiol"},{"key":"pone.0271676.ref022","first-page":"807","article-title":"Perzentile f\u00fcr den Body-mass-Index","author":"K Kromeyer-Hauschild","year":"2001","journal-title":"Monatsschrift Kinderheilkunde"},{"key":"pone.0271676.ref023","unstructured":"Wabitsch M, Moss A. 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