PCORnet Antibiotics and Childhood Growth Study: Process for Cohort Creation and Cohort Description

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Health Research
• Observational Studies
• Public Health Data Analysis

Background:

• The National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet) facilitates large-scale observational studies using healthcare data.
• The PCORnet Antibiotics and Childhood Growth Study is a key inaugural observational research project within PCORnet.
• Understanding early life antibiotic exposure is crucial for pediatric health outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the data integration and analysis processes for a large, multi-institutional cohort of children.
• To characterize the cohort demographics and the prevalence of antibiotic use in early childhood.
• To establish a foundation for examining the relationship between antibiotic exposure and childhood growth.

Main Methods:

• Included children with same-day height and weight measurements across three key age periods before age five.
• Utilized statistical queries run on local PCORnet Common Data Model instances, returning aggregate data for analysis.
• Defined overweight and obesity using age- and sex-specific body mass index percentiles.

Main Results:

• A diverse cohort of 681,739 children was analyzed, with significant representation from Black (24.9%) and Hispanic (17.5%) populations.
• Over half of children (55.2%) received at least one antibiotic prescription before 24 months of age.
• Prevalence of overweight and obesity was 27.6% in early childhood (4 to <6 years) and 36.2% in later childhood (9 to <11 years).

Conclusions:

• The PCORnet Antibiotics and Childhood Growth Study is a significant national, longitudinal observational study.
• The study involves a diverse pediatric population, enabling robust analysis of health trends.
• It provides a critical dataset for future research on early antibiotic exposure and childhood growth patterns.