RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ILLNESS AND ADIPOSITY IN CHILDHOOD

Abstract

A relationship between nutrition and survival is deep rooted in history. Presently, there appear to be two primary theories concerning an association between illness and adiposity in childhood. The first theory posits that increased illness is the result of high adiposity. The second theory, "infectobesity", posits that increased adiposity is virus-induced. Although an association between infection and nutrition is not a novel concept, the focus has now shifted from undernutrition to the impact of overnutrition on childhood illness. Especially in children, studies on this association are sparse. The aim of this secondary data analysis research project was to investigate the relationship between illness in the first two years of life and percent fat mass at five years of age in a cohort of children who have been studied since birth for the effects of DHA supplementation during pregnancy on childhood cognitive function. Secondary research questions granted further investigation into the relationship between illness in the first two years of life and BMI at four and five years of age. Anthropometric measures were collected at respective biannual study visits. Illness data was collected from the medical record. Only medically documented illnesses were included. Illnesses were categorized into infectious, allergic, unknown, or non-applicable categories. Infectious illnesses were further sub classified according to etiology (viral, bacterial, fungal, or unknown). Illness in the first two years of life was not found to have a statistically significant association with percent body fat at five years of age. Infectious illness, when combined with the unknown illness category, was found to have a statistically significant association with BMI at four years of age (p-value .025). Despite the 42.5% decrease in sample size from four years to five years, infectious illness was found to be trending toward significance. BMI at five years of age was found to be significantly correlated to percent fat mass at five years of age.