Abstract
Background/ObjectivesLow and high birth weight and rapid weight gain during infancy are associated with childhood obesity. Associations of birth and infancy body composition (BC) growth with childhood BC remain unknown in low-income countries. We aimed to investigate the associations of fat mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM) at birth and its accretion during early infancy with FM and FFM at the age of 4 years.MethodsIn the infant Anthropometry and Body Composition (iABC) cohort, BC was assessed at six consecutive time points from birth to 6 months and at 4 years of age by air displacement plethysmography. Multiple linear regression models were used to determine the association between FM and FFM at birth and their accretion rates during infancy and FM index (FMI) and FFM index (FFMI) at 4 years in 314 children.ResultsOne kilogram higher FFM at birth was associated with a 1.07 kg/m2 higher FFMI (95% CI 0.60, 1.55) at 4 years while a one SD increment in FFM accretion rate from 0 to 6 months was associated with a 0.24 kg/m2 increment in FFMI (95% CI 0.11, 0.36) and with a 0.20 kg/m2 higher FMI at 4 years (β = 0.20; 95% CI 0.04, 0.37). FFM at birth did not predict FMI at 4 years. FM at birth was associated with 1.17 kg/m2 higher FMI at 4 years (95% CI 0.13, 2.22) whereas FM accretion from 0 to 4 months was associated with an increase in FMI of 0.30 kg/m2 (95% CI 0.12, 0.47). FM at birth did not predict FFMI at 4 years, and neither did FM accretion from 0 to 4 months.ConclusionsA higher FFM in early infancy predicted higher FFMI at 4 years while a higher FM accretion during early infancy predicted higher FMI at 4 years. Follow-up studies are merited to explore associations of childhood BC with cardio-metabolic risk later in life.
Highlights
Childhood obesity is a major public health problem worldwide[1]
The aim of the present study was to examine the association between FM and FFM at birth and during early infancy with fat mass index (FMI) and fat-free mass index (FFMI) at 4 years of age in a study conducted in Jimma, Ethiopia
A total of 314 children with complete data for all the covariates were included in models using FM or FFM at birth as main exposure variables (Fig. 1), whereas 307 children were included in models using FM or FFM accretion rates as main exposure variables
Summary
Childhood obesity is a major public health problem worldwide[1]. Its prevalence is dramatically rising[2] and childhood obesity is an important risk factor for chronic disease occurrence and mortality in adulthood[3,4].Numerous studies from high-income countries have shown that birth weight[5,6,7,8,9] and weight gain during infancy[5,6,7,10,11,12,13] are positively associated with laterNutrition and DiabetesAdmassu et al Nutrition and Diabetes (2018)8:46 adiposity. The few studies conducted in low- and middle-income countries have associated birth weight and rapid infant weight gain with later lean mass[21,22,23] but not with FM, indicating that greater early weight gain is broadly beneficial. It is not known whether such associations apply to low-income countries that are undergoing nutrition transition[24,25] and where childhood overweight is an emerging public health problem[26,27] and co-existing with undernutrition[28]. We hypothesized that birth body composition (FM and FFM) and body composition gain (FM and FFM accretion rates) during infancy are associated with body composition at 4 years differently
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