To what extent do weight gain and eating avidity during infancy predict later adiposity?

OBJECTIVE: To determine the extent to which weight gain and eating behaviours in infancy predict later adiposity.
DESIGN: Population-based, prospective, longitudinal birth cohort study. Weights collected in infancy were used to calculate Z-scores for weight gain to age 1 year conditional on birth weight (CWG). To avoid multiple significance tests, variables from the parent questionnaire completed at age 1 year describing eating avidity were combined using general linear modelling to create an infancy avidity score. Anthropometry, skinfold thicknesses and bioelectrical impedance data collected at age 7-8 years were combined using factor analysis, to create an adiposity index.
SETTING: Gateshead, UK.
SUBJECTS: Members of the Gateshead Millennium Study cohort with data at both time points (n 561).
RESULTS: CWG in infancy significantly predicted adiposity at age 7 years, but related more strongly to length and lean mass. High adiposity (> 90th internal percentile) at age 7 years was significantly associated with high CWG (relative risk 2·76; 95% CI 1·5, 5·1) in infancy, but less so with raised (> 74th internal percentile) eating avidity in infancy (relative risk 1·87; 95% CI 0·9, 3·7). However, the majority of children with high weight gain (77·6%) or avidity (85·5%) in infancy did not go on to have high adiposity at age 7 years.
CONCLUSIONS: Rapid weight gain in infancy and the eating behaviours which relate to it do predict later adiposity, but are more strongly predictive of later stature and lean mass.