Ambient temperature and indicators of overweight during infancy and early childhood: a population-based historical cohort study

Abstract

Background: The global rate of obesity has risen sharply in past decades reaching 14 % of adults. High anthropometric measurements during childhood and infancy are predictive of later adiposity. Preliminary evidence links prenatal and postnatal ambient temperatures with rapid infant weight gain. We assessed the association between ambient temperature exposure during the first year of life and high weigh-for-length at age 1-1·5 years and overweight at age 2-2·5 years. Methods: We carried out a population-based historical cohort study of 968,534 infants born 2011–2019. Using a satellite-based spatiotemporal model we assessed daily mean and minimum temperatures at the family's residence and calculated weekly averages throughout the first year. High weight-for-length at age 1–1.5 years was defined as ≥85th percentile according to WHO-standardization and overweight at age 2–2.5 years was defined as BMI ≥85th percentile. Weekly and cumulative relative risks were assessed using distributed lag nonlinear models. Results: We found a positive association between ambient temperatures during the entire first year of life and high weight-for-length at age 1-1·5 years. The relative risk for cumulative exposure to the highest temperature quintile compared to the lowest was 1·82 (95 % CI 1·63-2·04) for mean temperature and 1·50 (95 % CI 1·36-1·66) for minimum temperature. We also observed an association with overweight at age 2-2·5 years with a relative risk of 1·67 (95 % CI 1·46-1·91) and 1·19 (1·07-1·33) for mean and minimum temperatures, respectively. Conclusions: Exposure to warmer temperatures during the first year of life is associated with high weight-for-length in infants and overweight in toddlers.