ArticleEuropean journal of nutrition2025
Circadian eating patterns track from infancy to pre- and primary school-age, but are not prospectively associated with body composition in childhood - Results of the DONALD cohort study.
Article in European journal of nutrition, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Contribution of habitual and meal-specific dietary inflammatory index and its associations with obesity and metabolic risk indicators in women.Nutrition journal · 2026Article
- Chronotype-specific associations of meal timing patterns with cardiometabolic health in women: a cross-sectional study.Nutrition & metabolism · 2025Article
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11 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundWhile circadian eating patterns seem to be involved in the aetiology of obesity in adulthood. Little is known about tracking of such patterns from infancy to pre- and primary school age and their prospective impact on body composition.
methodsBased on data from the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) Study we investigated whether circadian eating patterns in infancy (0-1 years) (1) track to pre- (3-4 years) or primary-school age (6-7 years) and (2) are associated with body composition at primary-school age, using multivariable linear regression models. Circadian patterns were extracted from 3-day weighed dietary records (n = 3,780 records from n = 510 children) and related to body mass index standard deviation scores (BMI-SDS), fat mass index (FMI) and fat free mass index (FFMI).
resultsCircadian eating patterns [i.e. eating occasion frequency (n/day), duration of nightly fasting (min), percentage of total energy intake from meals and snacks (%)] except carbohydrate intake after 6 p.m. track from infancy to pre- and primary school age (all p < 0.05). Sensitivity analyses stratified by breastfeeding duration (exclusive breastfed ≥ 4 months, yes/no) showed that the extent of tracking was less pronounced for ≥ 4 months breastfeeding. There were no significant associations between any aspect of circadian eating patterns in infancy and BMI-SDS or body composition during primary-school age (all p > 0.05).
conclusionsOur data suggest that circadian eating pattern in pre- and primary school age are shaped in infancy. However, this tracking of circadian eating pattern in childhood does not appear to have any health relevance with regard to BMI-SDS or body composition.
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