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. 2016 Dec;17(12):1245-1257.
doi: 10.1111/obr.12476. Epub 2016 Oct 17.

Nutritional interventions or exposures in infants and children aged up to 3 years and their effects on subsequent risk of overweight, obesity and body fat: a systematic review of systematic reviews

Bernadeta Patro-Gołąb #  1 , Bartłomiej M Zalewski #  1 , Maciej Kołodziej  1 , Stefanie Kouwenhoven  2 , Lucilla Poston  3 , Keith M Godfrey  4 , Berthold Koletzko  5 , Johannes Bernard van Goudoever  2   6 , Hania Szajewska  1
Affiliations

Nutritional interventions or exposures in infants and children aged up to 3 years and their effects on subsequent risk of overweight, obesity and body fat: a systematic review of systematic reviews

Bernadeta Patro-Gołąb et al. Obes Rev. 2016 Dec.

Erratum in

Abstract

This study, performed as part of the international EarlyNutrition research project (http://www.project-earlynutrition.eu), provides a systematic review of systematic reviews on the effects of nutritional interventions or exposures in children (up to 3 years of age) on the subsequent risk of obesity, overweight and adiposity. Electronic databases (including MEDLINE, Embase and Cochrane Library) were searched up until September 2015. Forty systematic reviews were included. A consistent association of breastfeeding with a modest reduction in the risk of later overweight and obesity in childhood and adulthood was found (the odds decreased by 13% based on high-quality studies), but residual confounding cannot be excluded. Lowering the protein content of infant formula is a promising intervention to reduce the risk of later overweight and obesity in children. There is no consistent evidence of an association of the age of introducing complementary foods, sugar-sweetened beverage or energy intake in early childhood with later overweight/obesity, but there are some indications of an association of protein intake during the complementary feeding period with later overweight/obesity. There was inadequate evidence to determine the effects of other nutritional interventions or exposures, including modifications of infant formula composition, fat intake or consumption of different food groups.

Keywords: Nutrition; obesity; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of potential conflicts of interest

BPG received a research training fellowship grant from Nestle Nutrition Institute.

BMZ, MK declare no conflict of interest.

SK A part of her PhD thesis is to assess the effects of an infant formula with an optimized amino acid composition and a lower protein content on growth and body composition.

KMG received reimbursement for speaking at conferences sponsored by companies selling nutritional products and is part of an academic consortium that has received research funding from Abbott Nutrition, Nestec, and Danone.

The work of BK is financially supported by the Commission of the European Communities, the 7th Framework Programme Early Nutrition (FP7-289346), the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme DYNAHEALTH (No 633595), and the European Research Council Advanced Grant META-GROWTH (ERC-2012-AdG – no.322605). Additional support is from the German Ministry of Education and Research, Berlin (Grant Nr. 01 GI 0825), the German Research Council (DFG), and the University of Munich Innovative Research Priority Project MC-Health. BK is a member of the National Breastfeeding Committee and tends to be biased towards breastfeeding. The Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany and its employee, BK, have received support for scientific and educational activities by different nutritional companies, predominantly as part of publically funded research projects with support of the European Commission or German governmental research support.

JBvG is founder and director of the Dutch Human Donor Milk Bank and is a member of the Dutch Health Council. He holds patents on amino acid composition of infant formula.

HS has participated as a clinical investigator and/or speaker for companies selling nutritional products (Arla, Danone, HiPP, Nestle´, Nestle´ Mead Johnson).

LP has received support for scientific and educational activities from companies including Abbott Nutrition, Danone, Nestle, and Tate and Lyle, predominantly as part of publically funded research projects with support of the European Commission.

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