Study links neonatal adiposity to higher risk of childhood obesity

The study is published in The Pediatrics

According to the authors, there is longitudinal association of neonatal adiposity (fat mass percentage) with BMI trajectories and childhood overweight and obesity mostly experienced from ages 2 to 6 years. They studied 979 children from the Healthy Start cohort. Overweight and obesity was defined as BMI levels ≥85th percentile for age and sex. Mixed-effects models were used to examine the association between neonatal fat mass percentage and BMI trajectories. They tested for effect modification by sex, race and/or ethnicity, and breastfeeding duration and also estimated the proportion of children classified as overweight or obese at specific levels of neonatal fat mass percentage (mean ± SD).

The results displayed were –

1. The mean neonatal adiposity level was 9.1% ± 4.0%. Child BMI levels differed by neonatal adiposity.
2. Each increase in neonatal adiposity resulted in a 0.12 higher overall BMI level between ages 2 to 6 years and this association was not modified by offspring sex, race and/or ethnicity, or breastfeeding duration.
3. Increasing neonatal adiposity was associated with an increasing proportion of childhood overweight and obesity by age 5 years.

The researchers thereafter concluded that higher BMI levels in children in between ages 2-6 years can be attributed to higher neonatal adiposity.

For the full article Click on the link: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-0737