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Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
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Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study

Published on: February 2, 2017

Infant feeding and overweight in two Oxfordshire towns

M Thorogood, R Clark, P Harker

    The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
    |July 1, 1979
    PubMed

    Insights

    Intensive health visitor advice did not reduce infant overweight rates. However, promoting breastfeeding may decrease the frequency of overweight infants by one year of age.

    Area of Science:

    • Pediatrics
    • Public Health
    • Nutrition

    Background:

    • Infant feeding practices significantly influence growth and development.
    • Overweight and obesity in early childhood are growing public health concerns.
    • Understanding the impact of interventions on infant weight is crucial.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To evaluate the effect of intensive health visitor intervention on infant overweight frequency.
    • To compare infant overweight rates between intervention and control groups.
    • To identify potential factors influencing infant overweight.

    Main Methods:

    • A comparative study was conducted in two Oxfordshire market towns.
    • One town received intensive feeding advice from a research health visitor (intervention).
    • The control town received standard care.

    Main Results:

    • No significant difference in overweight infant frequency was observed between the intervention and control towns.
    • Eighteen percent of bottle-fed infants were overweight at one year.
    • Only three percent of breastfed infants were overweight at one year.

    Conclusions:

    • Increasing the number of health visitors with standard advice does not appear to reduce infant overweight.
    • A greater emphasis on promoting breastfeeding may be an effective strategy to reduce infant overweight.
    • Future research should explore targeted breastfeeding support interventions.

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