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Objective: To identify classes of balance skills and their trajectories from childhood to adolescence and the association of birthweight with these trajectories., Study Design and Setting: Participants (n = 13,443) from the 1970 British Cohort Study were assessed for four balance skills in childhood and adolescence. Latent class analysis was used to determine classes of balance skills over time, and latent transition analysis was used to explain the association between birthweight and the probabilities of changing classes over time., Results: A three-class solution, good balance skills (GBS) group, intermediate in balance skills (IBS) group, and poor balance skills (PBS) group, best fit the data for both childhood and adolescence. Most (49.97%, n = 6.713) had GBS in childhood and GBS in adolescence; the probability of "staying" as GBS was 86%. Birthweight was associated with higher likelihood of remaining GBS at adolescence (OR = 1.82, 95% CI = 1.40-2.37). Those who were classified as IBS and PBS in childhood had 75.2% and 62.7% probability of becoming GBS in adolescence, respectively. A small percentage of children stayed in the PBS group (1.92%, n = 258), with probability of remaining as such being 15.1%., Conclusions: The higher the birthweight, the better the outcomes in those with GBS and IBS in the childhood. However, although small proportion of children stayed at the lowest level of balance skills in adolescence, some clinical attention should be given to those classified at this level in childhood., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Birthweight is an important predictor of various fundamental aspects of childhood health and development., Aim: To examine the impact of birthweight on childhood balance performance classification and verify if this is replicable and consistent in different populations., Study Design: Prospective birth cohort study., Subjects: To describe heterogeneity in balance skills, latent class analyses were conducted separately with data from the 1958 National Child Development Study - NCDS (n = 12,778), and the 1970 British Cohort Study - BCS (n = 12,115)., Outcome Measures: Four balance tasks for NCDS and five balance tasks for BCS., Results: Birthweight was assessed as a predictor of balance skills. In both cohorts, two latent classes (good and poor balance skills) were identified. In both cohorts, higher birthweight was associated with a higher likelihood of having good balance skills. Boys were less likely to have good balance compared to girls., Conclusions: The results establish the reproducibility and consistency of the effect of birthweight on balance skills and point to early intervention for individuals with lower birthweight to mitigate the impact of motor impairment., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)