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Relationship between socioeconomic status and weight gain during infancy: The BeeBOFT study
Lu Wang1, Amy van Grieken1, Junwen Yang-Huang1
1Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Plos One
|November 3, 2018
Summary
Infants born to mothers with lower socioeconomic status (SES) experienced accelerated weight gain in the first six months. This catch-up growth was linked to birth weight, gestational age, and infant feeding practices.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Public Health
- Developmental Pediatrics
Background:
- Infant weight gain is a critical determinant of long-term health, with increased gain linked to future obesity and related diseases.
- Socioeconomic status (SES) is a known determinant of health outcomes, but its specific role in infant weight gain patterns requires further elucidation.
- Understanding the interplay between SES and infant growth is crucial for developing targeted public health interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and infant weight gain.
- To identify the mediating factors that explain the relationship between SES and infant weight gain.
- To inform strategies aimed at mitigating risks associated with rapid infant growth in vulnerable populations.
Main Methods:
- A cohort of 2513 parent-child dyads was analyzed from a cluster randomized controlled intervention study.
- Socioeconomic status (SES) was primarily assessed using maternal education level.
- Weight gain was calculated using weight-for-age z-scores (WAZ) across different infant age windows (0-3, 0-6, and 6-12 months), with path analysis employed to examine mediating pathways.
Main Results:
- Infants of mothers with lower education exhibited lower birth weight but demonstrated significant catch-up weight gain around 6 months of age.
- A higher weight-for-age z-score gain (0.42, 95% CI 0.27-0.57) was observed in the 0-6 month period for infants of less-educated mothers compared to those of highly-educated mothers.
- The association between lower maternal education and increased infant weight gain during 0-6 months was mediated by infant birth weight, gestational age, duration of breastfeeding, and age of complementary food introduction.
Conclusions:
- Infants from lower socioeconomic backgrounds experience accelerated weight gain in the first six months of life.
- This increased infant weight gain is significantly explained by factors including birth weight, gestational age at birth, and infant feeding practices (breastfeeding and complementary feeding).
- After accounting for these mediating factors, the direct association between maternal education level and infant weight gain was no longer significant, highlighting the importance of these intermediate variables.
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