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The University of Southampton
Studying Lifecourse Obesity PrEdictors (SLOPE) Study

About us

Photograph of SLOPE team members
SLOPE team members, Nida (left), Nisreen (middle), Sam (right)

SLOPE aims to identify associations between maternal and early life risk factors and childhood overweight and obesity using routinely collected population data. More information on the staff members of the SLOPE project can be found in the 'Affiliated staff' page.

We investigate the associations between maternal and early-life factors with indicators of childhood weight such as birth weight.

We assess socioeconomic inequalities and examine the time trend for the socioeconomic gap in birth and obesity outcomes.

We examine the inter-relationships between maternal characteristics, area-level environmental indicators, child early life weight gain and health, type of feeding and childhood weight at school age.

We also examine the relationships between order and timing of consecutive pregnancies and change in modifiable maternal characteristics with early life weight gain, childhood health and weight.

The ultimate goal is to develop and test a risk score for childhood overweight and obesity to help tackle the combination of maternal and early life risk factors, and inform intervention development for the prevention of childhood obesity.

The envisaged practical output would be a tool for identifying families at risk of their children becoming overweight/obese, starting from the first point of contact with a health professional during pregnancy, and by this facilitating early prevention of childhood obesity.

The SLOPE project is supported by an Academy of Medical Sciences and Wellcome Trust grant (Springboard – Health of the Public 2040) to Nisreen Alwan [Grant no: AMS_HOP001\1060], and the National Institute for Health Research through the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre.

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