Children under one year of age with untreated ENT infections are 25% more likely to develop obesity in childhood or adolescence.
Childhood infections are associated with an increased risk of obesity in children, suggests a study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. And contrary to popular belief until now, the antibiotics prescribed to treat these common patients are not responsible for this increased risk. The infections themselves are involved.
In France, around 18% of minors aged 3 to 17 are overweight, of which 3.5% are obese. A worrying proportion which has continued to increase since the 1990s, and which does not seem to decrease in the decades to come, both in our country and throughout the world. Lifestyle, exposure to chemicals in the environment, metabolic disorders in the mother … Scientists are exploring many avenues to explain this epidemic.
In recent years, the use of antibiotics, and in particular their harmful effects on the intestinal flora, has been examined. Many studies have indeed shown that these drugs disrupt the composition of the microbiota and promote weight gain. But according to recent work from the Kaiser Permanente Institute (United States), childhood infections are the cause of excess weight.
Prevent infections
Researchers studied the medical records of 260,556 children born between January 1997 and March 2013 in Northern California, and cared for by the Kaiser Permanente Institute since birth. They took note of any respiratory or ear infections they had suffered and antibiotic prescriptions, as well as changes in their body build up until they were 18 years old. They also took into account other factors such as the mother’s smoking during pregnancy, the mother’s body mass index and the infant’s diet (breastfeeding or formula).
It appears that children with one of these infections in their first year of life but who have not received antibiotics have a 25% risk of becoming obese later compared to children who have not had infections. . And it turns out that the more children have suffered from untreated infections, the greater the risk of obesity in childhood or adolescence.
On the other hand, the results show that children who received antibiotics before their first year of age do not present an increased risk of obesity compared to sick and untreated children. Results that persisted regardless of the class of antibiotics used.
So to fight against childhood obesity, the researchers recommend strengthening the prevention of infections and their treatment, while taking care to reduce the number of prescription antibiotics.
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