Early-life obesity prevention: critique of intervention trials during the first one thousand days

Reilly, J. J., Martin, A. and Hughes, A. R. (2017) Early-life obesity prevention: critique of intervention trials during the first one thousand days. Current Obesity Reports, 6(2), pp. 127-133. (doi: 10.1007/s13679-017-0255-x) (PMID:28434107) (PMCID:PMC5487951)

Abstract

Purpose of Review: To critique the evidence from recent and ongoing obesity prevention interventions in the first 1000 days in order to identify evidence gaps and weaknesses, and to make suggestions for more informative future intervention trials. Recent Findings: Completed and ongoing intervention trials have had fairly modest effects, have been limited largely to high-income countries, and have used relatively short-term interventions and outcomes. Comparison of the evidence from completed prevention trials with the evidence from systematic reviews of behavioral risk factors shows that some life-course stages have been neglected (pre-conception and toddlerhood), and that interventions have neglected to target some important behavioral risk factors (maternal smoking during pregnancy, infant and child sleep). Finally, while obesity prevention interventions aim to modify body composition, few intervention trials have used body composition measures as outcomes, and this has limited their sensitivity to detect intervention effects. The new WHO Healthy Lifestyles Trajectory (HeLTI) initiative should address some of these weaknesses. Summary: Future early obesity prevention trials should be much more ambitious. They should, ideally: extend their interventions over the first 1000 days; have longer-term (childhood) outcomes, and improved outcome measures (body composition measures in addition to proxies for body composition such as the BMI for age); have greater emphasis on maternal smoking and child sleep; be global.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The authors are currently in receipt of research grant funding from the WHO Healthy Lifestyles Trajectory Initiative (HeLTI).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Martin, Dr Anne
• Authors: Reilly, J. J., Martin, A., and Hughes, A. R.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > MRC/CSO SPHSU
• Journal Name: Current Obesity Reports
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 2162-4968
• ISSN (Online): 2162-4968
• Published Online: 22 April 2017
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2017 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Current Obesity Reports 6(2):127-133
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License