Background And Objective: The aim was assessing a short training for healthcare providers on patient-focused counselling to treat childhood obesity in primary care, along with dietitian-led workshops and educational materials.
Methods: Randomized clustered trial conducted with paediatrician-nurse pairs (Basic Care Units [BCU]) in primary care centres from Tarragona (Spain). BCUs were randomized to intervention (MI) (motivational interview, dietitian-led education, and educational materials) or control group (SC, standard care).
High protein intake has been associated with kidney hypertrophy, which is usually reversible; however, when it occurs early in life, it could lead to cell programming with a long-lasting effect. This study aimed to assess whether higher protein ingestion early in life has a persistent effect on kidney volume at 11 years of age, as well as its influence on blood pressure. This is a secondary analysis of a randomized control trial that compared the growth of infants fed with a higher-protein formula versus those fed with a lower-protein formula, with a control group of breastfed infants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: Infant feeding affects child growth and later obesity risk. We examined whether protein supply in infancy affects the adiposity rebound, body mass index (BMI) and overweight and obesity up to 11 years of age.
Methods: We enrolled healthy term infants from five European countries in a double blind randomized trial, with anticipated 16 examinations within 11 years follow-up.
Hypertension is a public health issue that can have its origin in the early phases of development. Maternal smoking during pregnancy (MSDP) could play a role in offspring's cardio-metabolic programming. To assess the relationship between MSDP and later blood pressure (BP) in children we conducted a secondary analysis of a randomized dietary intervention trial (EU-Childhood Obesity Project).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) predicts abdominal fat and cardiometabolic risk. In children with obesity, the most adequate cut-off to predict cardiometabolic risk as well as its ability to predict risk changes over time has not been tested. Our aim was to define an appropriate WHtR cut-off to predict cardiometabolic risk in children with obesity, and to analyze its ability to predict changes in cardiometabolic risk over time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: We aimed to describe and characterize the gut microbiota composition and diversity in children with obesity according to their metabolic health status.
Methods: Anthropometry, Triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, HOMA-IR, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) were evaluated (and z-score calculated) and faecal samples were collected from 191 children with obesity aged from 8 to 14. All children were classified depending on their cardiometabolic status in either a "metabolically healthy" (MHO; n = 106) or "metabolically unhealthy" (MUO; n = 85) group.
Background & Aims: Only limited information is available on the usefulness of the waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) as an abdominal obesity marker in children. Our aim was to compare the ability of a WHtR >90th percentile, a WHtR ≥0.50, a WHtR ≥0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Maternal perception of child weight status in children with overweight or obesity has received a lot of attention but data on paternal perception of children from presumably healthy cohorts are lacking.
Objective: We aimed to investigate paternal and maternal perception of child weight status at the age of 8 years in a cohort of 591 children from 5 European countries.
Material And Methods: Included were 8-year-old children and their parents participating in the European Childhood Obesity Project (EU CHOP).
Background & Aims: it has previously been described that dietary patterns established early in life tracked to late childhood. The aim of the present work was to analyse the association of dietary patterns that tracked from 2 to 8y with cardiometabolic markers at 8y of age.
Methods: The 3 identified patterns at 2y (that previous analyses showed to track to age 8y) were: "Core", loaded for vegetables, fruits, fish, olive oil, etc.
There is growing evidence that insufficient sleep has negative effects on the mental health of children. The aim of this study is to examine the associations between device-measured sleep duration and internalizing and externalizing problems in 8-year-old children. The study is a secondary analysis of data from the Childhood Obesity Project conducted in five European countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: The aim was to generate a predictive equation to assess body composition (BC) in children with obesity using bioimpedance (BIA), and avoid bias produced by different density levels of fat free mass (FFM) in this population.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional validation study using baseline data from a randomized intervention trial to treat childhood obesity. Participants were 8 to 14y (n = 315), underwent assessments on anthropometry and BC through Air Displacement Plethysmography (ADP), Dual X-Ray Absorptiometry and BIA.
There is accumulating evidence that early protein intake is related with weight gain in childhood. However, the evidence is mostly limited to the first year of life, whereas the high-weight-gain-velocity period extends up to about 2 years of age. We aimed to investigate whether protein intake during the second year of life is associated with higher weight gain and obesity risk later in childhood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: We aimed at analysing the association between dietary fibre intake during childhood and cardiovascular health markers.
Methods: We used observational longitudinal analysis and recorded diet using 3-day diaries at the ages of 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 years in children from the EU Childhood Obesity Project Trial. At the age of 8, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) and biochemical analyses (lipoproteins, triglycerides and homeostasis model for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR)) were evaluated.
The genetic background of childhood body mass index (BMI), and the extent to which the well-known associations of childhood BMI with adult diseases are explained by shared genetic factors, are largely unknown. We performed a genome-wide association study meta-analysis of BMI in 61,111 children aged between 2 and 10 years. Twenty-five independent loci reached genome-wide significance in the combined discovery and replication analyses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: Assessment of Fat Mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM) using Air-displacement plethysmography (ADP) technique assumes constant density of FFM (D) by age and sex. It has been recently shown that D further varies according to body mass index (BMI), meaning that ADP body composition assessments of children with obesity could be biased if D is assumed to be constant. The aim of this study was to validate the use of the calculations of D (rather than constant density of the FFM) to improve accuracy of body composition assessment in children with obesity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: In view of the current obesity epidemic, studies focusing on the interplay of playing outside (PO), screen time (ST) and anthropometric measures in preschool age are necessary to guide evidence-based public health planning. We therefore investigated the relationship between average time spent PO and ST from the ages 3 to 6 years and anthropometric measures at 6 years of age.
Methods: PO and ST of 526 children of the European Childhood Obesity Project (CHOP) were annually assessed by questionnaire from 3 until 6 years of age.
In humans, maximum brain development occurs between the third trimester of gestation and 2 years of life. Nutrition during these critical windows of rapid brain development might be essential for later cognitive functioning and behaviour. In the last few years, trends on protein recommendations during infancy and childhood have tended to be lower than that in the past.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: A high dairy protein intake in infancy, maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, and delivery mode are documented early programming factors that modulate the later risk of obesity and other health outcomes, but the mechanisms of action are not understood.
Methods: The Childhood Obesity Project is a European multicenter, double-blind, randomized clinical trial that enrolled healthy infants. Participating infants were either breastfed (BF) or randomized to receive higher (HP) or lower protein (LP) content formula in the first year of life.
Childhood obesity prevalence is rising in countries worldwide. A variety of etiologic factors contribute to childhood obesity but little is known about underlying biochemical mechanisms. We performed an individual participant meta-analysis including 1,020 pre-pubertal children from three European studies and investigated the associations of 285 metabolites measured by LC/MS-MS with BMI z-score, height, weight, HOMA, and lipoprotein concentrations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe primary aim of the Obemat2.0 trial was to evaluate the efficacy of a multicomponent motivational program for the treatment of childhood obesity, coordinated between primary care and hospital specialized services, compared to the usual intervention performed in primary care. This was a cluster randomized clinical trial conducted in Spain, with two intervention arms: motivational intervention group vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground/objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) on body mass index (BMI) and fat mass index (FMI) in children over the course of five years and identify potential bi-directional associations.
Subjects/methods: Data were drawn from the EU Childhood Obesity Project (CHOP). PA and SB were measured with the SenseWear Armband 2 at the ages of 6 (T1), 8 (T2) and 11 (T3) years.
Objectives: Fetal and early life represent a period of developmental plasticity during which metabolic pathways are modified by environmental and nutritional cues. Little is known on the pathways underlying this multifactorial complex. We explored whether 6 months old breast-fed infants could be clustered into metabolically similar groups and that those metabotypes could be used to predict later obesity risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Dietary habits established in infancy may persist into adulthood and determine long-term health.
Objectives: The aims of this work were to describe dietary patterns, predictors of adherence to them, and their tracking from ages 1 to 8 y in European children.
Methods: Three-day food diaries were prospectively collected at ages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 y.