394 - Protective Eating Behaviors Among Children at Higher-Risk for Obesity in the INSIGHT Study
Friday, April 28, 2023
5:15 PM – 7:15 PM ET
Poster Number: 394 Publication Number: 394.145
Sara J. Harris, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, HERSHEY, PA, United States; Ian M. Paul, Penn State College of Medicine, Lancaster, PA, United States; Stephanie Anzman-Frasca, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States; Eric Loken, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States; Jennifer Savage, Penn State University, University Park, PA, United States; Emily Hohman, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
Medical Student Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine HERSHEY, Pennsylvania, United States
Background: Maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) is positively associated with offspring who are overweight. However, not all children who are at risk develop obesity. Limited research has examined factors promoting resiliency to childhood obesity among children at increased risk. Objective: To identify appetitive traits associated with healthy weight in childhood among infants born to mothers with pre-pregnancy BMI≥25 kg/m2. Design/Methods: This secondary analysis includes a subset of mothers with overweight or obesity and their children (N=84, 90% White) from the Intervention Nurses Start Infants Growing on Healthy Trajectories (INSIGHT) Study, a clinical trial that randomized firstborn infants to a responsive parenting intervention designed for the primary prevention of obesity or a safety control. Children born to mothers with pre-pregnancy BMI≥25 kg/m2 were considered resilient if they had normal weight status at age 6 years (BMI< 85th percentile for age and sex). Mothers completed the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ) at child ages 30 months and 6 years. T-tests and ANOVAs, controlling for study group, assessed differences in CEBQ subscale scores between children with normal weight and children with BMI≥85th percentile. Results: At the time of delivery, mothers were 28.8± 4.9 years old with a mean (SD) pre-pregnancy BMI of 30.4 ± 4.8 kg/m2. Their offspring included 49 (43%) females. At age 6 years, 33 (39%) children were overweight/obese while 51 (61%) were normal weight (“resilient” group). Compared with children with BMI≥85th percentile, the resilient group had mothers who reported higher child slowness in eating scores when their child was 30 months (3.1 ± 0.6 vs. 2.8 ± 0.7; p=.03) and 6 years old (3.0 ± 0.6 vs. 2.5 ± 0.8; p=.004). Similarly, compared to those children with overweight or obesity, the resilient group had mothers who reported higher child satiety responsiveness (2.9 ± 0.6 vs. 2.5 ± 0.5; p< .001) and lower child enjoyment of food (3.4 ±0.7 vs. 4.0 ±0.7; p< .001), food responsiveness (2.2 ± 0.6 vs. 2.9 ± 0.9; p< .001), and emotional overeating (1.7 ± 0.5 vs. 1.9 ± 0.6; p=.09) when their child was 6 years old; no differences in these outcomes were detected between groups at 30 months. There was no association between emotional undereating, desire to drink, or food fussiness and obesity resilience at either time point.
Conclusion(s): Eating slower, higher satiety responsiveness, lower enjoyment of food, food responsiveness and emotional overeating may be protective factors against developing overweight/obesity among those with familial risk.
