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Longer breastfeeding reduces the positive relationships among gestational weight gain, birthweight, and childhood growth (1017.11)
Author(s) -
Zhu Yeyi,
Hernandez Ladia,
Dong Yongquan,
Himes John,
Hirschfeld Steven,
Forman Michele
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.1017.11
Subject(s) - breastfeeding , medicine , weight gain , anthropometry , body mass index , obstetrics , obesity , standard score , childhood obesity , pediatrics , demography , body weight , endocrinology , overweight , sociology , machine learning , computer science
Despite the well‐studied relationship between gestational weight gain (GWG) and childhood obesity, little is known about whether breastfeeding protects against obesity through GWG. We investigated the mediation effect of breastfeeding duration on the relationships among GWG, birthweight, and childhood growth in 1464 mothers and their children aged 0‐6 y in the National Children’s Study in Anthropometry. Child growth parameters included weight‐for‐age Z‐score (WAZ), height‐for‐age Z‐score (HAZ), weight‐for‐height Z‐score (WHZ), and body mass index Z‐score (BMIZ) based on CDC growth references. Structural equation modeling assessed both the direct and indirect effects of GWG on growth. After adjusting for maternal sociodemographic and perinatal covariates, GWG had significant direct effects on HAZ, WHZ, and BMIZ [path coefficients (β) = 0.055, 0.061, and 0.084, respectively]. In addition, birthweight mediated the positive relationships between GWG and all growth parameters whereas breastfeeding duration had negative effects on WAZ (β = ‐0.067, P < 0.01) and BMIZ (β = ‐0.09, P < 0.05). Thus, longer breastfeeding reduces the positive relationships among GWG, birthweight, and WAZ/BMIZ. Given that greater effects of breastfeeding duration were observed with increasing GWG, these findings underscore the importance of promoting breastfeeding following pregnancy to mitigate childhood obesity. Grant Funding Source : Supported by HHSN275200800020C