Association between the use of antibiotics during pregnancy and obesity in 5-year-old children.

BACKGROUND: Obesity is an epidemic that must arouse our attention. The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between antibiotic use during pregnancy and childhood obesity in 5-year-old Chinese children. METHODS: A total of 132 5-year-old children born in our hospital from January 2014 to January 2016 were included. The children's genders, nationalities, chronic diseases, and other factors were collected as adjusted covariates. We also collected the pre-pregnancy body mass indexes (BMIs) of pregnant women, diagnosis of diabetes mellitus or gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), maternal smoking, mode of delivery (cesarean section and vaginal delivery), and weight gain during pregnancy, which may affect childhood obesity. A linear mixed effect regression model was used to test the correlation between antibiotic use during pregnancy and the BMI of 5-year-old children, and a logistic mixed effect regression model was used to evaluate the correlation between antibiotic use during pregnancy and obesity outcome. RESULTS: When adjusted for the child's gender, birth weight, cesarean section, chronic diseases, maternal smoking during pregnancy, pre-pregnancy BMI, diagnosis of diabetes or GDM, mode of delivery (cesarean section and vaginal delivery), and weight gain during pregnancy (Model 3), antibiotic use during pregnancy was positively correlated with the BMI of 5-year-old children (ß=0.01, 95% CI: 0.01-0.03, P=0.04). Antibiotic use during pregnancy increased the risk of obesity by 4% in 5-year-old children (OR =1.04, 95% CI: 1.01-1.16, P=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: The use of antibiotics during pregnancy is positively correlated with the risk of obesity in 5-year-old children. KEYWORDS: Antibiotics; pregnancy; obesity; children.