Abstract
The effect of caloric intake, 24 hour heart rate and infant temperament (Carey Scale) on adipose tissue deposition was studied in two groups of healthy 18 month old infants: Group I (N=10) had weight by length (W/L) and triceps skinfold thickness (TSF) above the 75%ile and Group II (N=11) had W/L and TSF between 25-75%ile of the growth chart. The caloric intake in infants in group I and II was comparable (mean ± SEM 102.3 ± 7.8 vs. 121.5 ± 10.7 kcal/kg/day). No significant differences in heart rate during awake and asleep periods were seen between the two gorups. The number of infants in Group I and II classified into four temperament categories varying from easy, intermediate low, intermediate high, and difficult were respectively 1 vs 3, 4 vs 3, 2 vs 5 and 2 vs 0. Multiple linear regression analysis applied to this data showed that an increse in scores for difficult temperament in infants in Group II correlated positively with caloric intake (r2 = 0.41), and heart rate awake (r2 = 0.54), and negatively with five skinfold thickness (r2 = -0.71). Conversely, an increase in scores for difficult temperament in infants in Group I correlated negatively with caloric intake (r2 = 0.66), positively with five skinfold thickness (r2 = 0.94) and it was unrelated to changes in heart rate. This study shows that: 1) increased adiposity in infants studied was not explained by differences in caloric intake; 2) decreased adiposity observed in infants with difficult temperament was associated with elevations in heart rate suggesting either increased metabolic and/or physical activity of those infants; 3) the findings of increased adiposity in infants with difficult temperament warrant further investigation.
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Pereira, G., Kurtz, J., McKinney, S. et al. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INFANT TEMPERAMENT AND ADIPOSITY IN HEALTHY INFANTS. Pediatr Res 18 (Suppl 4), 208 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198404001-00689
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198404001-00689