Is High Milk Intake Good for Children's Health? A National Population-Based Observational Cohort Study

Abstract

Milk is widely considered as a beneficial product for growing children. This study was designed to describe the milk consumption status of Korean children aged 30-36 months and to investigate its association with the risk of obesity and iron deficiency anemia (IDA). This nationwide administrative study used data from the Korean national health insurance system and child health screening examinations for children born in 2008 and 2009. In total, 425,583 children were included, and they were divided into three groups based on daily milk consumption: low milk group (do not drink or drink <200 mL milk per day, n = 139,659), reference group (drink 200-499 mL milk per day, n = 255,670), and high milk group (drink ≥500 mL milk per day, n = 30,254). After adjusting variable confounding factors, the consumption of a large amount of milk of ≥500 mL per day at the age of 30-36 months was associated with an increased risk of obesity at the age of 42-72 months and IDA after the age of 30 months. These results may provide partial evidence for dietary guidelines for milk consumption in children that are conducive to health.

Keywords: body weight; children; iron deficiency anemia; milk; nutritional state.

Figure 1

Enrollment diagram and grouping of the study population.