Cambridge Baby Growth Study II

Background: There are consistent relationships between the antenatal environment, birth weight, infant weight gain, postnatal nutrition and subsequent obesity and metabolic disease risk. Correlations between small size at birth and later risk for obesity and Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) are well known. Meanwhile, typical macrosomic infants of diabetic mothers (IODM) are reported to possess similar risk. IODM born with normal birthweight are also thought to be ‘high risk’ but the in-utero effects of abnormal glycaemic control on later infancy growth patterns and biochemical changes, are even less well understood in these infants. This study follows on from the original Cambridge Baby Growth Study cohort (2000-2010) with ‘high risk’ infants, infants born small-for-gestational-age (SGA) and IODM, and further control infants and investigate their early changes in body composition, including during very early infancy. The overall aim of the study is to identify and validate early biomarkers of infant nutrition, weight gain and body composition. We have finished with IODM and control recruitment and are still currently recruiting SGA infants.

Eligibility: Infants (>34 weeks gestation) with birth weight less than -1.5 standard deviation scores (SDS) for weight [see appendix 2], or infants >34 weeks born to mothers with diabetes (type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes or gestational diabetes mellitus) or ‘control’ infants of ‘normal’ birth weight (greater than -1.5 SDS)

Study design: Prospective cohort study with infant visit at birth, 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 3, 6, 12, 24 & 36 months.

Clinical impact: Studying both SGA infants and IODM will help us better definite body composition patterns in early life, and relationships to postnatal nutrition and genetic factors.

 

Cambridge Baby Growth Outcome Study

Background: It has been established by many studies that early life, including pregnancy and infancy, may influence subsequent body composition and predisposition to later obesity and metabolic risk. Both low birth weight and rapid infancy weight gain are associated with the development of central fat, childhood obesity, insulin resistance and thus T2D. It is then important to know whether these infancy associations remain in childhood, and whether early life nutritional biomarkers are related to childhood body composition and longer-term metabolic risk factors. This study allows us to link infancy growth and biochemical data to metabolic outcomes at age 5-10 years.

Study design: Prospective follow-up cohort study that requires a single visit to the clinical research facility. During this visit, the research nurses will perform anthropometric measurements, DXA scan, blood pressure, and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT).

Eligibility: Children originally recruited to the CBGS, currently 5-10 years old.

Clinical impact: By identifying early nutritional biomarkers that predict adverse metabolic phenotypes in childhood, we would then be able to inform nutritional intervention studies, and potentially reduce risk for adult disease.

 

Key Publications 

• Prentice P, Acerini CL, Eleftheriou A, Hughes IA, Ong KK, Dunger DB. Cohort profile: The Cambridge Baby Growth Study (CBGS). Int J Epidemiol. 2016;45(1):35-35g. doi:10.1093/ije/dyv318
• Prentice PM, Olga L, Petry CJ, et al. Reduced size at birth and persisting reductions in adiposity in recent, compared with earlier, cohorts of infants born to mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus. Diabetologia. 2019;62(11):1977-1987. doi:10.1007/s00125-019-4970-6
• Ong KK, Cheng TS, Olga L, et al. Which infancy growth parameters are associated with later adiposity? The Cambridge Baby Growth Study. Ann Hum Biol. 2020;47(2):142-149. doi:10.1080/03014460.2020.1745887