Anthropometric measurements at birth do not affect response to obesity treatment

While neonatal anthropometric measures are related to the degree of obesity in childhood, it does not seem to affect response to multidisciplinary treatment to childhood obesity, a recent study has found.

The study included 2,474 children and adolescents with obesity (mean age 11.2 years, 1,321 girls), enrolled from the Children’s Obesity Clinic in Denmark. All participants received a family-based, individualized treatment regimen for obesity. The outcome of interest was the relationship between neonatal anthropometric measurements and degree of obesity at treatment initiation and with subsequent response to treatment.

Multiple regression analysis found significant correlations between many neonatal anthropometric measurements and childhood obesity. For instance, each 1-kg increase in birthweight was correlated with significantly greater degree of obesity upon treatment initiation (p=0.028). The same was true for a 1-cm increase in birth length (p=0.008) and being born large for gestational age (p=0.002).

The multidisciplinary regimen proved to be effective, with participants showing substantial reductions in obesity and overweight over a mean duration of 1.27 years. Notably, neonatal anthropometric measures did not significantly affect the degree of treatment response.

“The lack of association between neonatal anthropometric measures and treatment response is unlikely to be related to a lack of prenatal exposure, as the data showed an association between neonatal anthropometric measures and childhood obesity, in concordance with the literature,” the researchers said.

“It is possible that an association between neonatal anthropometric measures and obesity management results manifest only after several years of treatment, something this study was not designed to test,” they added. “Individualization of obesity treatment based on neonatal anthropometry does not seem warranted.”