Antibiotic Exposure in Early Life Tied to Slightly Higher Obesity Risk

By Kelly Young

Edited by David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH, and Lorenzo Di Francesco, MD, FACP, FHM

Use of antibiotics and other gut-altering medications in early life is associated with slightly increased risk for becoming obese, according to a pair of new studies.

In Gut, researchers retrospectively studied 300,000 military dependents. Some 12% received outpatient prescriptions for histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs), 3% received proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), and 72% received antibiotics in their first 2 years of life. Children who received a PPI or H2RA prescription had a slightly higher risk for obesity by a median age of 3 years (17% and 15%, respectively) than those who didn't receive any study medication (11%). Meanwhile, the obesity incidence was 13% in children prescribed one antibiotic class and 19% in those prescribed four or more classes.

In Pediatrics, researchers studied electronic records of 360,000 children. By 5 years of age, children who had received any antibiotics before age 2 had slightly higher BMI z scores than those who didn't. The authors say the clinical significance is "likely negligible," equivalent to a 0.24-pound difference with exposure to four or more antibiotics.

Read Dr. John Cowden's take on the Pediatrics study in NEJM Journal Watch Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in the days to come.