Dairy consumption with onset of overweight and obesity among U.S. adolescents (370.7)

Abstract

Background: Current evidence relating dairy intake and long‐term weight status for adolescents is inconclusive and insufficient.Objective: To evaluate the relationships between total dairy and dairy subtypes in childhood and early adolescence with subsequent onset of overweight and obesity through early adulthood.Methods: A total of 6,749 girls and 5,701 boys aged 9 to 14, participants in the U.S. prospective cohort Growing Up Today Study (GUTS), free of obesity at the time of enrollment in 1996 were followed until 2012. Dairy intake was measured using Youth/Adolescent Food Frequency Questionnaires. Participants reported height and weight on each cycle, and Body Mass Index was calculated. We defined overweight and obesity using age‐ and sex‐specific International Obesity Task Force cutoffs. We used Cox proportional hazards models to evaluate the associations with incident overweight and obesity of intake of total dairy, total milk, high fat dairy, low fat dairy, whole milk, 1% milk, skim milk, yogurt and frozen yogurt.Results: During 103,293 person‐years of follow up, 762 girls and 1,029 boys became overweight and 491 girls and 370 boys became obese. The total dairy intake hazard ratio (HR), comparing highest to lowest quintile, for incident obesity onset was 0.83 (95%CI: 0.60‐1.15, p trend=0.20) for girls and 1.34 (95%CI: 0.93‐1.95, p trend=0.14) for boys. The yogurt intake HR comparing the highest to lowest tertile, was 1.06 (95%CI: 0.83‐1.34) for girls and 1.00 (95%CI: 0.77‐1.31) for boys. For incident overweight or obesity, the total dairy intake HR was 1.01 (95%CI: 0.81‐1.25, p trend=0.81) for girls and 0.99 (95%CI: 0.82‐1.2, p trend=0.48) for boys. No significant associations were observed for dairy subtypes.Conclusions: Our results suggest that total dairy intake in childhood and early adolescence was not associated with long‐term risk of overweight and obesity in later adolescence and early adulthood.Funding: The Bell Institute of General Mills.Grant Funding Source: Supported by the Bell Institute of General Mills.