Infections, not antibiotics, may be tied to childhood obesity

From The New York Times:

Is the use of antibiotics in infancy tied to childhood obesity? Some studies suggest so, but a new analysis suggests the link may be with infections rather than antibiotics.

Using records of a large health maintenance organization, researchers tracked 260,556 infants born from January 1997 through the end of March 2013. The database included details on antibiotic use, diagnosis, and height and weight from birth through age 18. The study is in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.

The scientists compared children who had no infections and no antibiotic use in the first year of life with those who had untreated infections. They found that an infant with one untreated infection had a 15 percent increased risk for childhood obesity. The risk was 40 percent in those with three untreated infections.

But there was no difference in obesity risk between infants treated with antibiotics and those with a similar infection left untreated. In other words, infections, but not the use of antibiotics, were associated with childhood obesity.

“If there is an infection during infancy, particularly a respiratory or ear infection, it should be treated,” said the lead author, Dr. De-Kun Li, a Kaiser Permanente scientist. “You shouldn’t avoid antibiotics because you are concerned about childhood obesity.”

Read the media article on The New York Times website

Read the journal article:
Infection and antibiotic use in infancy and risk of childhood obesity: a longitudinal birth cohort study
Dr Prof De-Kun Li, MD, Hong Chen, MPH, Jeannette Ferber, MPH, Roxana Odouli, MSPH
Vol, No. 11  p873-958 e11
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(16)30281-9/fulltext