Title: Infant BMI or Weight-for-Length and Obesity Risk in Early Childhood.
Authors: Roy, Sani M; Spivack, Jordan G; Faith, Myles S; Chesi, Alessandra; Mitchell, Jonathan A; Kelly, Andrea; Grant, Struan F A; McCormack, Shana E; Zemel, Babette S
Published In Pediatrics, (2016 May)
Abstract: Weight-for-length (WFL) is currently used to assess adiposity under 2 years. We assessed WFL- versus BMI-based estimates of adiposity in healthy infants in determining risk for early obesity.Anthropometrics were extracted from electronic medical records for well-child visits for 73 949 full-term infants from a large pediatric network. World Health Organization WFL and BMI z scores (WFL-z and BMI-z, respectively) were calculated up to age 24 months. Correlation analyses assessed the agreement between WFL-z and BMI-z and within-subject tracking over time. Logistic regression determined odds of obesity at 2 years on the basis of adiposity classification at 2 months.Agreement between WFL-z and BMI-z increased from birth to 6 months and remained high thereafter. BMI-z at 2 months was more consistent with measurements at older ages than WFL-z at 2 months. Infants with high BMI (≥85th percentile) and reference WFL (5th-85th percentiles) at 2 months had greater odds of obesity at 2 years than those with high WFL (≥85th percentile) and reference BMI (5th-85th percentiles; odds ratio, 5.49 vs 1.40; P < .001). At 2 months, BMI had a higher positive predictive value than WFL for obesity at 2 years using cut-points of either the 85th percentile (31% vs 23%) or 97.7th percentile (47% vs 29%).High BMI in early infancy is more strongly associated with early childhood obesity than high WFL. Forty-seven percent of infants with BMI ≥97.7th percentile at 2 months (versus 29% of infants with WFL ≥97.7th percentile at 2 months) were obese at 2 years. Epidemiologic studies focused on assessing childhood obesity risk should consider using BMI in early infancy.
PubMed ID:
27244803
MeSH Terms: Adiposity*; Body Mass Index*; Body Weights and Measures/methods*; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Female; Humans; Infant; Male; Pediatric Obesity/epidemiology*; Predictive Value of Tests; Risk Factors