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Infant and early childhood dietary predictors of overweight at age 8 years in the CAPS population

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 65, pages 454–462 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Programs to address obesity are a high priority for public policy especially for young children. Research into dietary determinants of obesity is challenging but important for rational planning of interventions to prevent obesity, given that both diet and energy expenditure influence weight status. We investigated whether early life dietary factors were predictive of weight status at 8 years in a cohort of Australian children.

Subjects/Methods:

We used data from the Childhood Asthma Prevention Study—a birth cohort at high risk of asthma. Dietary data (3-day weighed food records) were collected at 18 months and height, weight and waist circumference were collected at 8 years. We assessed the relationship between dietary predictor variables and measures of adiposity using linear regression.

Results:

Intakes of protein, meat and fruit at age 18 months were positively associated with measures of adiposity at age 8 years, namely, body mass index and/or waist circumference. We also showed a significant negative relationship between these measures of adiposity at 8 years and intake at 18 months of dairy foods as a percent of total energy, and intake of energy dense cereal-based foods such as cookies and crackers.

Conclusions:

This birth cohort study with rigorous design, measures and analyses, has shown a number of associations between early dietary intake and subsequent adiposity that contribute to the growing evidence base in this important field.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the CAPS families for their participation in the study, the CAPS investigators for study direction and the study team for collection of the data; Margaret-Allman Farinelli for initial work on the data analysis for this paper; Pat Crawford, Mark Hudes and Lorrene Ritchie for comments on the manuscript. The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, Cooperative Research Centre for Asthma, New South Wales Department of Health, Children's Hospital Westmead, University of Sydney, Faculty of Medicine, Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging. Dr CA was funded by the Swedish Heart Lung Foundation and Swedish Society of Medicine. Contributions of goods and services were made by Allergopharma Joachim Ganzer KG Germany, John Sands Australia, Hasbro, Toll refrigerated, AstraZeneca Australia and Nu-Mega Ingredients Pty Ltd. Goods were provided at reduced cost by Auspharm, Allersearch and Goodman Fielder Foods. University of Sydney, Faculty of Medicine, Strategic Research Grant 2008.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    F L Garden & J M Simpson

  2. Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    F L Garden & G B Marks

  3. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    C Almqvist

  4. Department of Woman and Child Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    C Almqvist

  5. University of California, Atkins Center for Weight and Health, Berkeley, CA, USA

    K L Webb

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  1. F L Garden
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Correspondence to F L Garden.

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Garden, F., Marks, G., Almqvist, C. et al. Infant and early childhood dietary predictors of overweight at age 8 years in the CAPS population. Eur J Clin Nutr 65, 454–462 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2011.7

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