Infant feeding and ethnic differences in body mass index during childhood: a prospective study

O.E. Sirkka, Tanja G.M. Vrijkotte, Lieke van Houtum, marieke Abrahamse-Berkeveld, J. Halberstadt, Margreet Olthof, Jaap Seidell

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Abstract

This study investigated ethnic differences in childhood body mass index (BMI) in children from Dutch and Turkish descent and the role of infant feeding factors (breastfeeding duration, milk feeding frequency, as well as the timing, frequency and variety of complementary feeding (CF)). We used data from 244 children (116 Dutch and 128 Turkish) participating in a prospective study in the Netherlands. BMI was measured at 2, 3 and 5 years and standard deviation scores (sds) were derived using WHO references. Using linear mixed regression analyses, we examined ethnic differences in BMI-sds between 2 and 5 years, and the role of infant feeding in separate models including milk or CF factors, or both (full model). Relative to Dutch children, Turkish children had higher BMI-sds at age 3 (mean difference: 0.26; 95%CI: 0.04, 0.48) and 5 (0.63; 0.39, 0.88), but not at 2 years (0.08; −0.16, 0.31). Ethnic differences in BMI-sds were somewhat attenuated by CF factors at age 3 (0.16; −0.07, 0.40) and 5 years (0.50; 0.24, 0.77), whereas milk feeding had a minor impact. Of all factors, only CF variety was associated with BMI-sds in the full model. CF factors, particularly CF variety, explain a small fraction of the BMI-sds differences between Dutch and Turkish children. The role of CF variety on childhood BMI requires further investigation
Original languageEnglish
Article number2291
Pages (from-to)1-12
Number of pages12
JournalNutrients
Volume13
Issue number7
Early online date1 Jul 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2021

Bibliographical note

Special Issue: Nutrition for Infant Feeding.

Funding

Funding: The original study was financially supported by the Research & Development Fund of the Public Health Service of Amsterdam. The funding bodies had no role in the design of the study, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data or in writing the manuscript.

FundersFunder number
Public Health Service of Amsterdam

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