ArticleGastroenterology2016
Administration of Antibiotics to Children Before Age 2 Years Increases Risk for Childhood Obesity.
Article in Gastroenterology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 78 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Impact of antibiotics on gut microbiome composition and resistome in the first years of life in low- to middle-income countries: A systematic review.PLoS medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Early and frequent exposure to antibiotics in children and the risk of obesity: systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.F1000Research · 2020Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Single-dose azithromycin for infant growth in Burkina Faso: Prespecified secondary anthropometric outcomes from a randomized controlled trial.PLoS medicine · 2024Trial
- Neonatal Azithromycin Administration and Growth during Infancy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2023Trial
- Single-dose azithromycin for child growth in Burkina Faso: a randomized controlled trial.BMC pediatrics · 2021Trial
- Effect of Antibiotics on Short-Term Growth among Children in Burkina Faso: A Randomized Trial.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2018Trial
- Dietary and nutritional strategies for reducing disease risk associated with antibiotic-induced dysbiosis.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Article
- Seeding and feeding: nutrition and birth-associated exposures shape gut microbiome assembly in breastfed infants.Gut microbes · 2025Article
- Antibiotic use attributable to RSV infections during infancy-an international prospective birth cohort study.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2025Observational
- Microbiome-Maternal Tract Interactions in Women with Recurrent Implantation Failure.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Antibiotic-induced gut dysbiosis: unraveling the gut-heart axis and its impact on cardiovascular health.Molecular biology reports · 2025Review
- Antibiotic Exposure and Childhood Overweight/Obesity: Evidence from Epidemiological and Experimental Studies.Current pharmaceutical design · 2025Review
- Therapeutic potential of botanical drugs and their metabolites in the treatment of pelvic inflammatory disease.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
- Assessing Diagnostic Performance of Molecular Culture for Neonatal Sepsis: Protocol of the CHAMPIONS Study.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Maternal Body Mass Index Associates with Prenatal Characteristics and Fecal Microbial Communities.Nutrients · 2024Observational
- Nutritional counselling and risk factors for obesity: an observational study in toddlers.Italian journal of pediatrics · 2024Observational
- Association Between Early-Life Exposure to Antibiotics and Development of Child Obesity: Population-Based Study in Italy.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND &
aimsChildhood obesity is increasing and is associated with adult obesity. Antibiotics have been used to promote weight gain in livestock for several decades. Antibiotics are commonly prescribed for children, but it is not clear how exposure to antibiotics early in life affects risk for obesity. We performed a population-based cohort study to assess the association between antibiotic exposure before age 2 years and obesity at age 4 years.
methodsWe performed a retrospective cohort study of 21,714 children in The Health Improvement Network-a population-representative dataset of >10 million individuals derived from electronic medical records from 1995 through 2013 in the United Kingdom. Eligible subjects were registered within 3 months of birth with complete follow-up and height and weight were recorded within 12 months of their 4th birthday. Antibiotic exposure was assessed before age 2 years, and classified based on anti-anaerobic activity. The primary outcome was obesity at age 4 years. We performed logistic regression analyses, adjusting for maternal and sibling obesity, maternal diabetes, mode of delivery, socioeconomic status, year and country of birth, and urban dwelling.
resultsIn the cohort, 1306 of the children (6.4%) were obese at 4 years of age. Antibiotic exposure was associated with an increased risk of obesity at 4 years (odds ratio [OR] = 1.21; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07-1.38). ORs increased with repeated exposures: for 1-2 prescriptions, OR = 1.07 (95% CI, 0.91-1.23); for 3-5 prescriptions, OR = 1.41 (95% CI, 1.20-1.65); and for 6 or more prescriptions, OR = 1.47 (95% CI, 1.19-1.82). Antifungal agents were not associated with obesity (OR = 0.81; 95% CI, 0.59-1.11).
conclusionsAdministration of 3 or more courses of antibiotics before children reach an age of 2 years is associated with an increased risk of early childhood obesity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.