Infants in households with very low food security may have greater
obesity risk
Low food security now widespread in the US due to the COVID-19 crisis


Date:
August 28, 2020
Source:
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
Summary:
Infants from households reporting very low 'food security,' a
measure of access to adequate and healthy meals, tend to weigh
more than those from households with relatively high food security.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Infants from households reporting very low "food security," a measure
of access to adequate and healthy meals, tend to weigh more than those
from households with relatively high food security, suggests a new study
led by a researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.


==========================================================================
The study tracked nearly 700 infants in North Carolina over their first
year of life, with regular interviews of the infants' mothers. The
researchers found that when mothers reported very low food security
per a standard government questionnaire, the infants were more likely
to have above-average body mass indices (BMIs), higher fat levels,
and other measures indicating greater obesity risk.

The reasons for the association between food insecurity and higher
obesity risk are not yet understood but may be related to poor nutrition
and overfeeding.

The results suggest that household food insecurity may be especially
hazardous for infants, given that diet and weight gain in infancy are
thought to have a potentially large impact on the future risks of obesity
and related health conditions.

The study was published August 28 in Pediatrics.

Study lead author Sara Benjamin-Neelon, PhD, JD, the Helaine and Sidney
Lerner Associate Professor in the Bloomberg School's Department of
Health, Behavior and Society, began the study in 2013 when she was a
faculty member at Duke University's School of Medicine, and completed
data collection in 2017 at the Bloomberg School. The 666 infants tracked
in the study were from lower-income households in Durham, NC. Most of
the infants (68.6 percent) were African American, 14.9 percent were
white, and 55.4 percent of the households reported annual incomes below $20,000. Benjamin-Neelon and her colleagues visited the homes of the
infants when they were 3, 6, 9, and 12 months old, and interviewed the
mothers by phone an additional eight times over the year.

"The findings are especially relevant today when there is such
widespread food insecurity in the U.S. due to the COVID-19 crisis,"
says Benjamin-Neelon, PhD, JD, who also directs the Lerner Center for
Public Health Promotion at the Bloomberg School.



==========================================================================
For their analysis, the researchers compared the weight and length of
infants in the study to a global population of healthy infants from
eight counties to determine "at risk of overweight." They found that
infants from households categorized as low and very low food security
tended to move into this overweight risk category over the 3-month
visit to the 12-month visit period (53.2 percent to 66.9 percent),
whereas infants from households with high and marginal food security --
those with moderate access to adequate, healthy food -- tended to move
out of this category (46.8 to 33.1 percent) during the period.

Infants in households with low and very low food security also were
generally more likely (1.72 and 1.55 times more likely) to be at risk
of overweight.

Additionally, infants from very low food security households were
significantly heavier by comparison with infants from food-secure
households, and had more fat accumulation by standard caliper-based
measures.

"One possible explanation for this link is that food insecurity is
associated with lower quality diets that promote obesity, although
infants, especially in the first six months of life, should be
consuming limited foods-mainly just human breastmilk or infant formula," Benjamin-Neelon says. "Another possibility may be related to infant
feeding practices. Mothers wanting to make sure their infants are fed
enough could be overfeeding or feeding in a way that overrides infant
fullness cues like propping a bottle or encouraging infants to finish
the bottle." Benjamin-Neelon and colleagues found, to their surprise,
that mothers' participation in either of two federal food assistance
programs, WIC and SNAP, did not modify the apparent links between food insecurity and being overweight.

"As a former WIC nutritionist, I thought it was important to assess
whether such programs modified the association between food insecurity and obesity," Benjamin-Neelon says. "However, just because it didn't make a difference in this study does not mean that women with infants and young children should not participate in these valuable programs." She and
her colleagues believe that larger and longer-term studies are needed to resolve the many questions about food insecurity and obesity, including
whether the association in infancy continues into later childhood.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health
(R01DK094841).


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Johns_Hopkins_University_Bloomberg_School_of_Public Health. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Sara E. Benjamin-Neelon, Carter Allen, Brian Neelon. Household Food
Security and Infant Adiposity. Pediatrics, 2020; e20193725 DOI:
10.1542/ peds.2019-3725 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200828122727.htm

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