Antibiotic Use Before Age 2 May Raise Obesity Risk
Researchers suspect broad-spectrum versions change makeup of microbes in gut
MONDAY, Sept. 29, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Children who are given broad-spectrum antibiotics before the age of 2 may face a slightly higher risk of becoming obese during childhood, new research suggests.
Broad-spectrum antibiotics target a larger number of organisms than narrow-spectrum ones, according to the study.
"It is a reason to think about whether you need antibiotics, and which antibiotic you are picking," said lead researcher Dr. Charles Bailey, attending physician at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Bailey and his colleagues looked at the health records of nearly 65,000 children who were seen at clinics from 2001 through 2013. The researchers followed the children from birth to age 5. They tracked the height and weight of the children, and classified them as normal weight, overweight or obese.
The study authors found that 69 percent of the children were given antibiotics before age 2. On average, the children had 2.3 episodes of antibiotic use.
Children who had four or more exposures to antibiotics were 11 percent more likely to be obese than those who did not. The researchers also looked at whether the antibiotics prescribed were narrow-spectrum, which are recommended as first-line treatment of common childhood infections, or broad-spectrum. "Kids who got broad-spectrum antibiotics had a 16 percent higher risk [of obesity than those who did not]," Bailey said.
No link was found between the narrow-spectrum drugs and obesity risk.
The researchers took into account other factors affecting obesity, such as insurance status, use of steroids and having an asthma diagnosis, and the association held.
The study was published in the Sept. 29 online edition of the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
Bailey and his team decided to look at the possible link between early antibiotic use and obesity risk because previous research has suggested that a person's intestinal microbe environment may be linked with obesity; antibiotic use may affect that environment.
"What we see here is an association," Bailey said. "We haven't proven cause and effect," he explained.