Association Between Infancy BMI Peak and Body Composition and Blood Pressure at Age 5-6 Years

Introduction: The development of overweight is often measured with the body mass index (BMI). During childhood the BMI curve has two characteristic points: the adiposity rebound at 6 years and the BMI peak at 9 months of age. In this study, the associations between the BMI peak and body composition measures and blood pressure at age 5-6 years were investigated.

Methods: Measurements from the Amsterdam Born Children and their Development (ABCD) study were available for this study. Blood pressure (systolic and diastolic) and body composition measures (BMI, waist-to-height ratio, fat percentage) were gathered during a health check at about 6 years of age (n = 2822). All children had multiple BMI measurements between the 0-4 years of age. For boys and girls separately, child-specific BMI peaks were extracted from mixed effect models. Associations between the estimated BMI peak and the health check measurements were analysed with linear models. In addition, we investigated the potential use of the BMI at 9 months as a surrogate measure for the magnitude of the BMI peak.

Results: After correction for the confounding effect of fetal growth, both timing and magnitude of the BMI peak were significantly and positively associated (p<0.001) with all body composition measures at the age of 5-6 years. The BMI peak showed no direct association with blood pressure at the age 5-6 year, but was mediated by the current BMI. The correlation between the magnitude of the BMI peak and BMI at 9 months was approximately 0.93 and similar associations with the measures at 5-6 years were found.

Conclusion: The magnitude of the BMI peak was associated with body composition measures at 5-6 years of age. Moreover, the BMI at 9 months could be used as surrogate measure for the magnitude of the BMI peak.