ArticleWorld journal of pediatrics : WJP2019
Antibiotic use in early childhood and risk of obesity: longitudinal analysis of a national cohort.
Article in World journal of pediatrics : WJP, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- Pooled it
- Long-Term or Recurrent Antibiotic Use During Childhood or Adolescence and the Risk of Kidney Cancer: A Cohort Study.Cancer medicine · 2026Article
- Evidence for a perinatal origin of childhood obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis of risk and protective factors.Osong public health and research perspectives · 2026Article
- Antibiotic prophylaxis in the context of VCUG/VUS in children: results of a multinational survey.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Antibiotic Use in the First 2 Years of Life Is Related to Longitudinal BMI Trajectories From 0 to 18 years: A Prospective Cohort Study.Journal of obesity · 2026Article
- Exploring the Role of the Gut Microbiome Across the Lifespan: Implications for Aging and Metabolic Disorders.Journal of the Endocrine Society · 2025Review
- A microbial symphony: a literature review of the factors that orchestrate the colonization dynamics of the human colonic microbiome during infancy and implications for future health.Microbiome research reports · 2025Review
- New insights into the treatment of acute otitis media.Expert review of anti-infective therapy · 2023Review
- Early-Life Antibiotics and Childhood Obesity: Yeast Probiotics as a Strategy to Modulate Gut Microbiota.Cureus · 2023Review
- Early-life antibiotic exposure increases the risk of childhood overweight and obesity in relation to dysbiosis of gut microbiota: a birth cohort study.Annals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials · 2022Article
- Do Antibiotics Cause Obesity Through Long-term Alterations in the Gut Microbiome? A Review of Current Evidence.Current obesity reports · 2021Review
- Socioeconomic Status and Determinants of Pediatric Antibiotic Use.Clinical pediatrics · 2021Article
- Gut Microbiota and Obesity in Adults and Children: The State of the Art.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2021Review
- Microbiome-immune-metabolic axis in the epidemic of childhood obesity: Evidence and opportunities.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2020Review
- Obesity: novel and unusual predisposing factors.Therapeutic advances in endocrinology and metabolism · 2020Review
- Big challenges: obesity and type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents.World journal of pediatrics : WJP · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTaking oral antibiotics during childhood has been linked with an increased risk of childhood obesity. This study assessed any potential association in number of courses of antibiotics taken between 2-3 and 4-5 years of age and body mass trajectory up to age 5.
methodsThe study was a secondary analysis of 8186 children and their parents from the infant cohort of the Irish National Longitudinal Study of Children. Antibiotic use was measured by parental recall between ages 2-3 and 4-5. Longitudinal models described the relationship between antibiotic exposure and body mass index (BMI) standard deviation scores and binary outcomes, and examined interactions between covariates, which included socioeconomic status, diet assessed by food frequency questionnaires and maternal BMI.
resultsAny antibiotic usage between 2 and 3 years did not predict risk of overweight or obesity at age 5. Four or more courses of antibiotics between 2 and 3 years were independently associated with obesity at age 5 (odds ratio 1.6, 95% confidence interval 1.11-2.31). Effect size was modest (coefficient + 0.09 body mass SD units, standard error 0.04, P = 0.037). Maternal BMI modified the relationship: ≥ 4 courses of antibiotics between 2 and 3 years were associated with a + 0.12 body mass SD units increase in weight at age 5 among children of normal-weight mothers (P = 0.035), but not in children of overweight mothers.
conclusionsNumber of antibiotic courses, rather than antibiotic use, may be an important factor in any link between early antibiotic exposure and subsequent childhood obesity. Research is needed to confirm differential effects on babies of normal versus overweight/obese mothers independent of socioeconomic factors.
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