Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
Centre for Primary Care, Wolfson Insitute of Population Health, Queen Mary University, London, UK.
Arch Dis Child. 2024 Jan 22;109(2):125-129. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-325798.
Obesity and excess adiposity are leading causes of metabolic and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Early identification of individuals at risk is key for preventive strategies. We examined the relationship between infant body composition (0-2 years of age) and later (>2 years) health outcomes using a systematic review.
We preregistered the study on PROSPERO (ID 288013) and searched Embase, PubMed and Cochrane databases for English language publications using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms 'infant' and 'body composition' and 'risk' between January 1946 and February 2022. We included studies which assessed infant body composition using predetermined in vivo methods other than body mass index (BMI).
We identified 6015 articles. After abstract screening to assess eligibility, we reviewed 130 full text publications. 30 were included in the final assessment and narrative synthesis. Meta-analysis was not possible due to heterogeneity of results. All 30 studies were of high quality and reported associations between infant body composition and 19 different health outcomes after 2 years of age. Outcome measurements ranged from 2 years to 16 years. The strongest associations were found between infant fat mass and later fat mass (7 studies), and later BMI (5 studies). For 11 of the outcomes assessed, there was no relationship to infant adiposity detected.
Current evidence, from a small number of studies, suggests a positive association between infant adiposity and future adiposity or BMI, but the validity of infant body composition as a biomarker of future health remains inconclusive. Carefully designed, standardised studies are required to identify the value of infant body composition for predicting later health.
PROSPERO: 288013.
肥胖和脂肪过多是导致代谢和心血管发病率和死亡率的主要原因。早期识别高危人群是预防策略的关键。我们通过系统评价研究了婴儿身体成分（0-2 岁）与以后（>2 岁）健康结果之间的关系。
我们在 PROSPERO（ID 288013）上预先注册了这项研究，并使用医学主题词（MeSH）术语“婴儿”和“身体成分”和“风险”，在 1946 年 1 月至 2022 年 2 月期间，在 Embase、PubMed 和 Cochrane 数据库中搜索英文出版物。我们纳入了使用预先确定的体内方法（而非体重指数（BMI））评估婴儿身体成分的研究。
我们确定了 6015 篇文章。在进行摘要筛选以评估合格性之后，我们审查了 130 篇全文出版物。30 篇被纳入最终评估和叙述性综述。由于结果存在异质性，因此无法进行荟萃分析。所有 30 项研究均为高质量研究，并报告了婴儿身体成分与 2 岁以后 19 种不同健康结果之间的关联。结果测量范围从 2 岁到 16 岁。在婴儿脂肪量与以后的脂肪量（7 项研究）和以后的 BMI（5 项研究）之间发现了最强的关联。在评估的 11 项结果中，未发现婴儿肥胖与任何一项结果相关。
目前的证据来自少数研究，表明婴儿肥胖与未来的肥胖或 BMI 之间存在正相关，但婴儿身体成分作为未来健康的生物标志物的有效性仍不确定。需要精心设计、标准化的研究来确定婴儿身体成分预测未来健康的价值。
PROSPERO：288013。
