No link between dietary choline intake and anthropometric measurements in young girls: Study

The research was published in the BMC Pediatrics.

Previous studies have suggested that choline and betaine are associated with improved anthropometric measures including, BMI and waist circumference however, results are largely inconsistent and limited studies exist in children.

Hence, Alireza Jafari and colleagues from the Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran carried out the present study to investigate the relationship between dietary choline and betaine, and anthropometric measurements among Iranian children.

In this cross-sectional study, dietary information was collected for 788 six-year-old children. The authors measured dietary intakes using a valid and reliable semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire.

The USDA database was used to calculate dietary choline and betaine. The anthropometric characteristics, physical activity, and socio-demographic status based on a reliable and valid protocol was assessed.

Logistic regression adjusted for energy, physical activity, socio-economic status, and maternal age, physical activity, BMI, and HEI2015 was used to assess this association.

The key findings from the study were-

a. Free choline, glycero-phospho-choline, phospho-choline, phosphatidyl-choline, total choline, and total betaine, and choline were not related to overweight, obesity, underweight and wasting in the crude and adjusted model after controlling for children's energy intake, children's physical activity, socio-economic status, maternal physical activity, and BMI.

b. Betaine intake was associated with mid-arm circumference and risk of overweight.

Therefore, the authors concluded that "our cross-sectional study did not demonstrate an association between various forms of dietary choline intake and anthropometric measurements among six-year-old girls in Iran, but total betaine intake was associated with mid-arm circumference."

They further inferred that future prospective studies with a larger sample size in different populations are needed to delineate this relationship more clearly and explore potential mechanisms.