Early antibiotic exposure linked to childhood obesity

Abstract

Childhood obesity is a predisposing factor for adult obesity and both are major health problems in most countries, including Malta. Moreover, the widespread and, often inappropriate, use of antibiotics has also long been cited as another health problem in Malta, usually in association with the increasing risk of antibiotic-resistance and the potential emergence of ‘superbugs’. Yet both these problems - obesity and the overuse of antibiotics – are interlinked, whereby early exposure to antibiotics increases the risk of those children becoming overweight or obese. This association, although previously documented in various large studies overseas, is under-appreciated locally. Yet the same association was reported in a smaller local study on 3-7 year olds in 2020, by Dr Marwa Khaled Grada at the University of Malta. Dr Grada showed a significant association between antibiotic use and increased childhood BMI (p=0.001), and, in this study, the use of antibiotics during infancy was found to be the best predictor of BMI.