Early-life family meal participation and anthropometric measures at 4 years of age

Early-life family meal participation has been associated with several aspects of nutritional health, but longitudinal associations with linear growth have not yet been investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate whether family meal participation at 12 months of age associates with anthropometric measures 3 years later. We used follow-up data from children born to mothers in the Norwegian Fit for Delivery trial (NFFD) and included 368 first-borns with dietary and anthropometric data at 12 months and 4 years of age. We treated the sample as a cohort and conducted subgroup analyses by randomization status. A family meal participation score was used as exposure, and weight, height, and body mass index (BMI) as outcomes in crude and multivariable linear regression models adjusted for maternal education, randomization status, and child sex.Higher family meal participation score at 12 months was positively associated with length at 12 months (B = 0.198, 95% CI 0.028, 0.367, p = 0.022) and 4 years (B = 0.283, 95% CI 0.011, 0.555, p = 0.042) in multivariable models. After additional adjustment for maternal height the associations attenuated and were no longer significant. An inverse association with BMI at 4 years of age was observed in children born to mothers that had been exposed to the NFFD intervention (B = -0.144, 95% CI -0.275, -0.014, p = 0.030), but attenuated after adjustment for maternal BMI.The longitudinal association observed between early family meal participation and child height was largely explained by maternal height. The relationship with BMI differed according to maternal participation in a lifestyle intervention trial during pregnancy.