Dietary inflammation and childhood adiposity: Analysis of individual participant data from six birth cohorts

Kristina Vingrys; James R Hébert; Ling-Wei Chen; Sarah Crozier; Liesbeth Duijts; Nicholas C Harvey; Vincent W V Jaddoe; Cecily Kelleher; Fionnuala M McAuliffe; Kinga Polanska; Matthew Suderman; Joanna Jerzynska; Matteo Bottai; Ricardo Segurado; Catherine M Phillips

doi:10.1016/j.clnu.2024.12.023

Dietary inflammation and childhood adiposity: Analysis of individual participant data from six birth cohorts

Clin Nutr. 2025 Jan 6:45:223-233. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2024.12.023. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Health, Physiotherapy, and Sports Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland; Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; VU First Year College®, Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Cancer Prevention and Control Program and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA; Department of Nutrition, Connecting Health Innovations LLC, Columbia, SC, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
³ Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Master of Public Health Program, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁴ MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK; NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Wessex, Southampton Science Park, Southampton, UK. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁵ Division of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁶ MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK; NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, UK. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁷ The Generation R Study Group, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Paediatrics, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁸ School of Public Health, Physiotherapy, and Sports Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁹ UCD Perinatal Research Centre, School of Medicine, University College Dublin, National Maternity Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹⁰ Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Hazards, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹¹ MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹² Department of Paediatrics and Allergy, Copernicus Memorial Hospital, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹³ Division of Biostatistics, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹⁴ School of Public Health, Physiotherapy, and Sports Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹⁵ School of Public Health, Physiotherapy, and Sports Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39837077
DOI: 10.1016/j.clnu.2024.12.023

Abstract

Background & aims: Childhood adiposity and inflammation impact long-term health. However, associations between dietary inflammation and childhood adiposity are unclear. We investigated if more pro-inflammatory diets are associated with greater adiposity in early-, mid-, and late-childhood.

Methods: We pooled individual participant data (IPD) from 13,978 children in six European birth cohorts in the ALPHABET consortium: Lifeways Cross-Generation Cohort Study (Lifeways), the Randomised cOntrol trial of LOw glycaemic index diet during pregnancy study (ROLO), the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), the Southampton Women's Survey (SWS), the Polish Mother and Child Cohort (REPRO_PL), and The Generation R Study (Generation R). Dietary inflammation was determined using the Children's Dietary Inflammatory Index (C-DII™). Adiposity-related outcomes included BMI z-score (primary outcome), abdominal circumference, skinfolds, fat-mass- and fat-free-mass-indices (secondary outcomes). Two-stage random effects IPD meta-analysis (IPD-MA), with adjusted linear and logistic regression models, was conducted. Quantile regression (QR) examined C-DII associations with BMI z-score percentiles.

Results: Median, 25th and 75th percentile C-DII scores trended upwards from early 0.18 (-0.65, 1.03) to late-childhood 0.51 (-0.40, 1.49). Pooled QR revealed positive C-DII associations across BMI z-score percentiles, particularly in late-childhood unadjusted β (95 % CI) 75th (0.075 (0.046, 0.105), p < 0.001); 85th (0.077 (0.045, 0.108), p < 0.001); and 95th (0.051 (0.011, 0.091), p = 0.01). Adjusted cohort-specific QR identified contrasting associations at early-childhood (ALSPAC and SWS) and late-childhood (Generation R). Pooled adjusted IPD-MA showed C-DII associations with late-childhood obesity [OR (95 % CI) 0.89 (0.81, 0.97), p = 0.01].

Conclusions: C-DII associations across BMI z-score distribution varied by cohort, quantile, and time-point, with some potentially explained by adiposity rebound, reverse causation and questionnaire response biases, highlighting insights not evident with linear regression.

Keywords: Birth cohort; C-DII; Child nutrition sciences; Dietary inflammation; Obesity.