Objectives: This study investigates the association between dietary intake and ADHD diagnosis and its dimensions in adolescents.
Methods: In the KOALA Birth Cohort Study, 810 adolescents aged 16 to 20 years provided information on ADHD diagnosis and completed a food frequency questionnaire. Dietary patterns were extracted using Principal Component Analysis.
Objectives: To investigate the associations of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour in early childhood with asthma and reduced lung function in later childhood within a large collaborative study.
Design: Pooling of longitudinal data from collaborating birth cohorts using meta-analysis of separate cohort-specific estimates and analysis of individual participant data of all cohorts combined.
Setting: Children aged 0-18 years from 26 European birth cohorts.
Introduction: A relatively common deviant type of eating behaviour among children is picky eating. Research on associations between picky eating and dietary patterns later in life is limited, and studies examining long-term effects on growth have yielded mixed results. The present study aimed to examine longitudinal associations of picky eating in early childhood with consumption of various foods, and weight status (body mass index, BMI) in young adulthood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To compare parent reported physician diagnosed asthma from questionnaires for epidemiological purposes, to general practitioner (GP) recorded childhood asthma.
Methods: This study was embedded in the KOALA Birth Cohort Study with regular follow-up by ISAAC core questions on asthma in 2834 children in two different recruitment groups, with 'conventional' lifestyles or 'alternative' lifestyles. At age 11-13 years these data were linked to data extracted from GP records.
Background: Early-life respiratory tract infections might affect chronic obstructive respiratory diseases, but conclusive studies from general populations are lacking. Our objective was to examine if children with early-life respiratory tract infections had increased risks of lower lung function and asthma at school age.
Methods: We used individual participant data of 150 090 children primarily from the EU Child Cohort Network to examine the associations of upper and lower respiratory tract infections from age 6 months to 5 years with forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV), forced vital capacity (FVC), FEV/FVC, forced expiratory flow at 75% of FVC (FEF) and asthma at a median (range) age of 7 (4-15) years.
This study aimed to explore associations between non-cholesterol sterol concentrations in breast milk and allergic outcomes in children aged two. Data from the KOALA Birth Cohort Study, the Netherlands, were used. Non-cholesterol sterols were analyzed by gas-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry in breast milk sampled one-month postpartum ( = 311).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScope: Folic acid supplementation during pregnancy may lead to an imbalance when vitamin B12 intake is low (folate trap) and may affect child's growth.
Methods: The authors study the association between third trimester maternal intakes of folate and B12 and birthweight and postnatal growth of 2632 infants from the KOALA Birth Cohort Study. Plasma vitamin biomarkers are measured in 1219 women.
Alternative lifestyles are likely to be associated with distinct usage of specific medicinal products. Our goal was to find out whether the intake of antibiotics during pregnancy and by children differs according to whether the mothers have alternative or conventional lifestyles. Therefore, we investigated the use of antibiotics by pregnant women and by children up to 11 years of age participating in the KOALA Birth Cohort Study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sufficient choline and betaine during pregnancy are needed for fetal growth and development.
Objectives: We aimed to investigate the associations between maternal plasma choline and betaine in the third trimester of pregnancy and child growth from birth up to 8 years of age.
Methods: Concentrations of choline and betaine were measured in plasma of 1331 pregnant women from the KOALA (Kind, Ouders en gezondheid: Aandacht voor Leefstijl en Aanleg) Birth Cohort Study in the Netherlands.
Purpose: To evaluate whether consumption of organic food and reduced intake of meat products in pregnancy are associated with lower prevalence of gestational diabetes (GD).
Methods: Women participating in the KOALA Birth Cohort Study with valid informed consent, a singleton pregnancy and information on their food intake were considered in this cross-sectional analysis. Participants with and without GD were compared with each other in terms of dietary characteristics (n = 37 and n = 2766, respectively).
A solid-phase extraction procedure was optimized to extract 3-fucosyllactose and other human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) from human milk samples separately, followed by absolute quantitation using high-performance anion-exchange chromatography-pulsed amperometric detection and porous graphitized carbon-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, respectively. The approach developed was applied on a pilot sample set of 20 human milk samples and paired infant feces collected at around 1 month postpartum. One-dimensional H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was employed on the same samples to determine the relative levels of fucosylated epitopes and sialylated (Neu5Ac) structural elements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To evaluate longitudinal associations between recreational screen time and sleep in early childhood, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at age 8 to 10 years.
Method: Questionnaires from 2,768 mother-child pairs from the Dutch KOALA Birth Cohort Study were used. General estimating equation logistic regression analyses examined associations between screen time and sleep at age 2, 4, and 6, and ADHD at age 8 to 10.
Purpose: It is controversial whether a higher intake of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC PUFA) through breastfeeding is associated or not to a lower blood pressure (BP) during childhood. We aimed to clarify this point by undertaking a meta-analysis involving the data from seven European birth cohorts.
Methods: We searched https://www.
Introduction: Previous longitudinal studies indicate that physical activity (PA) significantly declines from primary-to secondary school, and report both changes in individual and environmental determinants of PA. In order to understand this transition and to prevent this negative trend, it is important to gather contextually rich data on possible mechanisms that drive this decline. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate changes of PA patterns in transition between primary and secondary school, and to add domain-specific insights of how, where, and when these changes occur.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sedentary behavior and decreased physical activity are possible risk factors for developing asthma. This longitudinal study investigates the association between physical activity and subsequent asthma. We hypothesize that children with decreased physical activity at early school age, have higher risk of developing asthma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The objective of this study was to assess relationships between children's physical environment and afterschool leisure time physical activity (PA) and active transport.
Methods: Children aged 10-12 years participated in a 7-day accelerometer and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) protocol. Afterschool leisure time PA and active transport were identified based on location- and speed-algorithms based on accelerometer, GPS and Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) data.
Influenza vaccination is proven effective in preventing influenza. However, long-term effects on mortality have never been supported by direct evidence. In this study we assessed the long-term outcome of influenza vaccination on mortality in the elderly by conducting a 25-year follow-up study of a RCT on the efficacy of influenza vaccination as baseline.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Both low and high gestational weight gain have been associated with adverse maternal and infant outcomes, but optimal gestational weight gain remains uncertain and not well defined for all prepregnancy weight ranges.
Objectives: To examine the association of ranges of gestational weight gain with risk of adverse maternal and infant outcomes and estimate optimal gestational weight gain ranges across prepregnancy body mass index categories.
Design, Setting, And Participants: Individual participant-level meta-analysis using data from 196 670 participants within 25 cohort studies from Europe and North America (main study sample).
Scope: Understanding the biological functions of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) in shaping gastrointestinal (GI) tract microbiota during infancy is of great interest. A link between HMOs in maternal milk and infant fecal microbiota composition is examined and the role of microbiota in degrading HMOs within the GI tract of healthy, breastfed, 1-month-old infants is investigated.
Methods And Results: Maternal breast milk and infant feces are from the KOALA Birth Cohort.
Gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota composition differs between breastfed and formula-fed infants. Today's infant formulas are often fortified with prebiotics to better mimic properties of human milk with respect to its effect on GI microbiota composition and function. We used Illumina HiSeq sequencing of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene fragments to investigate the composition of faecal microbiota in 2-12 week old infants receiving either breastmilk, infant formulas fortified with prebiotics, or mixed feeding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The gut microbiota evolves from birth and is in early life influenced by events such as birth mode, type of infant feeding, and maternal and infant antibiotics use. However, we still have a gap in our understanding of gut microbiota development in older children, and to what extent early events and pre-school lifestyle modulate the composition of the gut microbiota, and how this impinges on whole body metabolic regulation in school-age children.
Results: Taking advantage of the KOALA Birth Cohort Study, a long-term prospective birth cohort in the Netherlands with extensive collection of high-quality host metadata, we applied shotgun metagenomics sequencing and systematically investigated the gut microbiota of children at 6-9 years of age.