ArticlePediatrics2016
Infant BMI or Weight-for-Length and Obesity Risk in Early Childhood.
Article in Pediatrics, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 96 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
96 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 182 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and safety of probiotic/synbiotic supplementation for overweight or obese children: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Pediatric research · 2026Pooled it
- Childhood Obesity Evidence Base Project: Building Translational Capacity through Meta-Analytic Methods.Childhood obesity (Print) · 2020Pooled it
- Trial
- Trial
- Early Weight Gain Forecasts Accelerated Eruption of Deciduous Teeth and Later Overweight Status during the First Year.The Journal of pediatrics · 2020Trial
- Continuous Intragastric Dextrose: A Therapeutic Option for Refractory Hypoglycemia in Congenital Hyperinsulinism.Hormone research in paediatrics · 2019Trial
- Outcomes of an early childhood obesity prevention program in a low-income community: a pilot, randomized trial.Pediatric obesity · 2018Trial
- Maternal Screen-Related Behaviors, Toddler Screen Use, and Toddler BMI in Mexican American Families: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2026Article
- Associations of Newborn Social Risk Factors With High Infant Weight-for-Length at Age 6 Months: Observational Clinical Cohort.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2026Observational
- Lipid pathways connecting maternal BMI with infant obesity risk.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Pharmacokinetics and Childhood Obesity: Pathophysiological Basis and Challenges in Choosing the Ideal Body Size Descriptor.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Parent-Reported Measures of Weight-Related Health Behaviors in Early Childhood: A Scoping Review.Childhood obesity (Print) · 2025Article
- Early infant appetitive traits are associated with growth status and adiposity in African-American infants and toddlers.Annals of human biology · 2025Article
- Neonatal malnutrition, body composition, and childhood obesity in critically ill infants.Maternal health, neonatology and perinatology · 2025Article
- Systemic inflammation during the neonatal period and BMI at 1 year in infants with gastroschisis: a retrospective cohort study.European journal of pediatrics · 2025Article
- Prenatal per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance mixtures and weight for length from birth to 12 months: The New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study.The Science of the total environment · 2025Article
- Associations of preconception air pollution exposure with growth trajectory in young children: A prospective cohort study.Environmental research · 2025Article
- Full title: prevalence and risk factors of overweight in Beijing infants basing generalized estimating equation: a longitudinal study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Prospective prediction of childhood body mass index trajectories using multi-task Gaussian processes.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2025Article
- The Ratio of Body Weight/Length Squared Relates to Low Serum α-Tocopherol in Preterm Infants.Cureus · 2024Article
36 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWeight-for-length (WFL) is currently used to assess adiposity under 2 years. We assessed WFL- versus BMI-based estimates of adiposity in healthy infants in determining risk for early obesity.
methodsAnthropometrics were extracted from electronic medical records for well-child visits for 73 949 full-term infants from a large pediatric network. World Health Organization WFL and BMI z scores (WFL-z and BMI-z, respectively) were calculated up to age 24 months. Correlation analyses assessed the agreement between WFL-z and BMI-z and within-subject tracking over time. Logistic regression determined odds of obesity at 2 years on the basis of adiposity classification at 2 months.
resultsAgreement between WFL-z and BMI-z increased from birth to 6 months and remained high thereafter. BMI-z at 2 months was more consistent with measurements at older ages than WFL-z at 2 months. Infants with high BMI (≥85th percentile) and reference WFL (5th-85th percentiles) at 2 months had greater odds of obesity at 2 years than those with high WFL (≥85th percentile) and reference BMI (5th-85th percentiles; odds ratio, 5.49 vs 1.40; P < .001). At 2 months, BMI had a higher positive predictive value than WFL for obesity at 2 years using cut-points of either the 85th percentile (31% vs 23%) or 97.7th percentile (47% vs 29%).
conclusionsHigh BMI in early infancy is more strongly associated with early childhood obesity than high WFL. Forty-seven percent of infants with BMI ≥97.7th percentile at 2 months (versus 29% of infants with WFL ≥97.7th percentile at 2 months) were obese at 2 years. Epidemiologic studies focused on assessing childhood obesity risk should consider using BMI in early infancy.
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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.