Bottom Line:
Author:
Background:
How the Study Was Conducted:
Results: The study found 69 percent of the children were exposed to antibiotics before the age of 24 months with an average exposure of 2.3 episodes per child. An increased risk of obesity was associated with greater antibiotic use, especially for children with four or more exposures, when all antibiotics or only broad-spectrum antibiotics were examined. No association was seen between obesity and narrow-spectrum antibiotics. For all children, the prevalence of obesity was 10 percent at age 2 years, 14 percent at 3 years and 15 percent at 4 years. The prevalence of being overweight/obese was 23 percent, 30 percent and 33 percent, respectively.
Discussion: "Because obesity is a multifactorial condition, reducing prevalence depends on identifying and managing multiple risk factors whose individual effects may be small but modifiable. Our results suggest that the use of broad-spectrum outpatient antibiotics before age 24 months may be one such factor. This provides additional support for the adoption of treatment guidelines for common pediatric conditions that emphasize limiting antibiotic use to cases where efficacy is well demonstrated and preferring narrow-spectrum drugs in the absence of specific indications for broader coverage."
( JAMA Pediatr . Published online September 29, 2014. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.1539. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com .)
Editor's Note:
Funding was provided by an unrestricted donation from the American Beverage Foundation for a Healthy America to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to support the Healthy Weight Program. Please see article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, etc.
Media Advisory:
To contact author L. Charles Bailey, M.D., Ph.D., call Joey McCool Ryan at 267-426-6070 or email mccool@email.chop.edu
JAMA Pediatrics