The Impact of Caesarean Section on the Risk of Childhood Overweight and Obesity: New Evidence from a Contemporary Cohort Study.

ABSTRACT: Caesarean section (CS) rates are increasing globally and exceed 50% in some countries. Childhood obesity has been linked to CS via lack of exposure to vaginal microflora although the literature is inconsistent. We investigated the association between CS birth and the risk of childhood obesity using the nationally representative Growing-Up-in-Ireland (GUI) cohort. The GUI study recruited randomly 11134 infants. The exposure was categorised into normal vaginal birth (VD) [reference], assisted VD, elective (planned) CS and emergency (unplanned) CS. The primary outcome measure was obesity defined according to the International Obesity Taskforce criteria. Statistical analysis included multinomial logistic regression with adjustment for potential confounders. Infants delivered by elective CS had

SUBMITTER: Masukume G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6181954 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature