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Infant BMI or Weight-for-Length and Obesity Risk in Early Childhood

Sani M Roy1, Jordan G Spivack2, Myles S Faith3

  • 1Divisions of Endocrinology and Diabetes.

Pediatrics
|June 1, 2016
PubMed

Insights

Body mass index (BMI) in infancy is a better predictor of early obesity risk than weight-for-length (WFL). High BMI at two months significantly increases the odds of a child being obese by age two.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric endocrinology
  • Public health nutrition
  • Childhood obesity research

Background:

  • Weight-for-length (WFL) is the standard for assessing infant adiposity under two years.
  • Early identification of obesity risk is crucial for timely intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare weight-for-length (WFL) and body mass index (BMI) based adiposity estimates in infants.
  • To determine which measure better predicts early-onset obesity risk.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of anthropometric data from 73,949 full-term infants up to 24 months.
  • Calculation of World Health Organization WFL and BMI z-scores (WFL-z, BMI-z).
  • Logistic regression to assess obesity odds at two years based on two-month adiposity classification.

Main Results:

  • BMI-z showed higher consistency with older age measurements compared to WFL-z at two months.
  • Infants with high BMI (≥85th percentile) at two months had significantly greater odds of obesity at two years (OR 5.49) than those with high WFL (OR 1.40).
  • BMI had a higher positive predictive value for obesity at two years (47% vs. 29% at 97.7th percentile).

Conclusions:

  • High infant BMI is a stronger indicator of early childhood obesity than high WFL.
  • Using BMI in early infancy can improve the identification of children at risk for obesity.
  • Current epidemiological studies on childhood obesity risk should consider incorporating BMI assessments.
Abstract

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