Researchers examined healthcare data for 35 institutions participating in the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network from 2009 to 2016. They included children both with and without complex chronic conditions.
Of 1.79 million children with a same-day height and weight measurement at less than one year, 362,550 were included in the cohort. Fifty-eight percent of the cohort received one or more antibiotic prescriptions when they were younger than two years old.
At five years old, 28 percent of the children were overweight or obese. Among children without a complex chronic condition at five years old, researchers estimated a higher mean BMI z score by 0.04 and higher odds of being overweight or obese compared to those who did not receive antibiotics at younger than two years of age.
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