Infant Overweight Is Associated with Delayed Motor Development
Received 21 July 2009; received in revised form 17 November 2009; accepted 30 December 2009. published online 15 March 2010.
Objective
To examine how infant overweight and high subcutaneous fat relate to infant motor development.
Study design
Participants were from the Infant Care, Feeding, and Risk of Obesity Project, a prospective, longitudinal study of low-income African-American mother-infant dyads assessed from 3 to 18 months of age (836 observations on 217 infants). Exposures were overweight (weight-for-length z-score ≥90th percentile of 2000 Centers for Disease Control/National Center for Health Statistics growth reference) and high subcutaneous fat (sum of 3 skinfold measurements >90th percentile of our sample). Motor development was assessed by using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II. Developmental delay was characterized as a standardized Psychomotor Development Index score <85. Longitudinal models estimated developmental outcomes as functions of time-varying overweight and subcutaneous fat, controlling for age and sex. Alternate models tested concurrent and lagged relationships (earlier weight or subcutaneous fat predicting current motor development).
Results
Motor delay was 1.80 times as likely in overweight infants compared with non-overweight infants (95% CI,1.09-2.97) and 2.32 times as likely in infants with high subcutaneous fat compared with infants with lower subcutaneous fat (95% CI, 1.26-4.29). High subcutaneous fat was also associated with delay in subsequent motor development (odds ratio, 2.27; 95% CI, 1.08-4.76).
Conclusions
Pediatric overweight and high subcutaneous fat are associated with delayed infant motor development.
aDepartment of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
bCarolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
cFrank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
dOffice of Population Studies Foundation, University of San Carlos, Cebu City, Philippines
Reprint requests: Meghan M Slining, MS MPH, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carolina Population Center, University Square, 123 Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-3997.
Supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01 HD42219-02) and the Mead Johnson Children's Nutrition Small Research Grants Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
ABSTRACT