Abstract
LBW increases the risk of a number of noncommunicable diseases in adulthood. However, birth weight (BW) cannot describe variability in infant body composition (BC). Variability in fat mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM) at birth may be particularly important in low-income countries because they undergo nutritional transition. There is a need for data on birth BC and its predictors from low-income countries in transition. We assessed absolute FM and FFM at birth and examined the role of gender, parity, GA, and LBW as predictors of birth BC. FM and FFM were assessed within 48 h of birth on 350 Ethiopian newborns using air displacement plethysmography (ADP). Female gender and being an infant of primi- or secundiparous mothers predicted lower BW and lower birth FFM but not FM, compared with male gender and infants of multiparous mothers, respectively. There was a positive linear relationship between BW and relative amount of FM for boys and girls. This study presents reference data on birth FM and FFM from a low-income setting and provides background for further longitudinal mapping of the relationship between fetal BC, childhood growth, and adult disease.
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Abbreviations
- ADP:
-
air displacement plethysmography
- BC:
-
body composition
- BW:
-
birth weight
- FM:
-
fat mass
- JUSH:
-
Jimma University Specialized Hospital
- FFM:
-
fat-free mass
- FFTD:
-
fat-free tissue density
- TBD:
-
total body density
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Acknowledgements
We thank the mothers and babies at JUSH for their participation, and the JUCAN research staff for their commitment to the study. We are also thankful to the Pediatric and Obstetric departments at JUSH. We thank Life Measurements (LMI, Concord, CA) for providing technical details on the PeaPod®. Finally, we thank Jimma University Research and Publication office for the permission to undertake the study and publish the results.
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Supported by the Danish Council for Strategic Research—Programme Commission on Food and Health; Danida through the Consultative Research Committee for Development Research (104.Dan.8-1207); and the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen through a scholarship [G.S.A.].
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
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Andersen, G., Girma, T., Wells, J. et al. Fat and Fat-Free Mass at Birth: Air Displacement Plethysmography Measurements on 350 Ethiopian Newborns. Pediatr Res 70, 501–506 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1203/PDR.0b013e31822d7470
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/PDR.0b013e31822d7470
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