Understanding childhood obesity in the US: the NIH environmental influences on child health outcomes (ECHO) program
Recommended Citation
Tylavsky FA, Ferrara A, Catellier DJ, Oken E, Li X, Law A, Dabelea D, Rundle A, Gilbert-Diamond D, Hivert MF, Breton CV, Cassidy-Bushrow AE, Mueller NT, Hunt KJ, Arteaga SS, Lombo T, Mahabir S, Ruden D, Sauder K, Hedderson MM, Zhu Y, Polk S, Mihalopoulos NL, Vos M, Pyles L, Roary M, Aschner J, Karagas MR, and Trasande L. Understanding childhood obesity in the US: the NIH environmental influences on child health outcomes (ECHO) program. Int J Obes (Lond) 2019.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-24-2019
Publication Title
Int J Obes (Lond)
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Few resources exist for prospective, longitudinal analysis of the relationships between early life environment and later obesity in large diverse samples of children in the United States (US). In 2016, the National Institutes of Health launched the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program to investigate influences of environmental exposures on child health and development. We describe demographics and overweight and obesity prevalence in ECHO, and ECHO's potential as a resource for understanding how early life environmental factors affect obesity risk.
METHODS: In this cross-sectional study of 70 extant US and Puerto Rico cohorts, 2003-2017, we examined age, race/ethnicity, and sex in children with body mass index (BMI) data, including 28,507 full-term post-birth to38,332 aged 2-18 years. Main outcomes included high BMI for age <2 >years, and at 2-18 years overweight (BMI 85th to <95th >percentile), obesity (BMI ≥ 95th percentile), and severe obesity (BMI ≥ 120% of 95th percentile).
RESULTS: The study population had diverse race/ethnicity and maternal demographics. Each outcome was more common with increasing age and varied with race/ethnicity. High BMI prevalence (95% CI) was 4.7% (3.5, 6.0) <1 >year, and 10.6% (7.4, 13.7) for 1 to <2 >years; overweight prevalence increased from 13.9% (12.4, 15.9) at 2-3 years to 19.9% (11.7, 28.2) at 12 to'high' BMI ranging from 1.2 to 2.2 for a wide range of exposure prevalences (1-50%) within each age group.
CONCLUSIONS: ECHO is a powerful resource for understanding influences of chemical, biological, social, natural, and built environments on onset and trajectories of obesity in US children. The large sample size of ECHO cohorts adopting a standardized protocol for new data collection of varied exposures along with longitudinal assessments will allow refined analyses to identify drivers of childhood obesity.
PubMed ID
31649277
ePublication
ePub ahead of print
