Abstract
BackgroundThere is increasing evidence that intrauterine environment and, consequently, growth in utero have both immediate and far-reaching consequences for health. Neonatal body composition might be a more sensitive marker of intrauterine environment and neonatal adiposity than birth weight and could serve as a predictor for non-communicable diseases later in life.MethodsTo perform a systematic literature review on neonatal body composition determined by air displacement plethysmography in healthy infants. The systematic review was performed using the search terms “air displacement plethysmography”, “infant” and “newborn” in Pubmed. Data are displayed as mean (Standard deviation).ResultsFourteen studies (including n = 6231 infants) using air displacement plethysmography fulfilled inclusion criteria for meta-analysis. In these, weighted mean body fat percentage was 10.0 (4.1) % and weighted mean fat free mass was 2883 (356) g in healthy term infants. Female infants had a higher body fat percentage (11.1 (4.1) % vs. 9.6 (4.0) %) and lower fat free mass (2827 (316) g vs. 2979 (344) g). In the Caucasian subpopulation (n = 2202 infants) mean body fat percentage was 10.8 (4.1), whereas data for reference values of other ethnic groups are still sparse.ConclusionsBody composition varies depending on gender and ethnicity. These aggregated data may serve as reference for body composition in healthy, term, singletons at least for the Caucasian subpopulation.
Highlights
There is increasing evidence that intrauterine environment and, growth in utero have both immediate and far-reaching consequences for health
Inclusion criteria First, abstracts were screened for relevance and all articles reporting measures of body composition determined by air displacement plethysmography (ADP) in full-term infants (≥ 37 0/7 SSW) during the first 96 postnatal hours selected
In the list of references on body composition provided by the manufacturer, we identified 224 publications
Summary
There is increasing evidence that intrauterine environment and, growth in utero have both immediate and far-reaching consequences for health. Neonatal body composition might be a more sensitive marker of intrauterine environment and neonatal adiposity than birth weight and could serve as a predictor for non-communicable diseases later in life. Body composition at birth may serve as a surrogate marker for the environment in-utero [4]. In a recent study on children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years in the United States, the prevalence of obesity was 17.0% in 2011–2014 and that of extreme obesity was 5.8% [8], indicating the increasing relevance of childhood obesity for public health. Obese children are likely to become obese adults with an Wiechers et al BMC Pediatrics (2019) 19:489 increased risk of obesity-related complications (e.g. diabetes and cardiovascular disease) and increased morbidity and mortality [10,11,12]
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