Lifestyle counselling targeting infant's mother during the child's first year and offspring weight development until 4 years of age: a follow-up study of a cluster RCT.

Abstract

To investigate the effect of intensified lifestyle counselling targeting infants' mothers on offspring weight development during the first 4 years of life. Follow-up of a cluster-randomised controlled trial in primary care child health clinics during 2004-2006 in Finland. Participants received a follow-up survey during 2010 concerning weight and height measurements of their offspring. Number of clusters was six and the response rate to the follow-up 71.9% (N=64/89). The participants (N=89) were mothers of infants aged 2-10 months. The intervention included individual counselling on diet and physical activity when the infant was 2-10 months of age and an option to attend supervised group exercise sessions. The authors analysed the secondary outcome of the intervention study: the weight development of the offspring. The primary outcome was the proportion of women returning to their prepregnancy weight by 10 months post partum, reported earlier. Multilevel mixed effect non-linear regression models included group, age of the child and interaction between group and age of the child. The increase of BMI z-score between 24 and 48 months was slower among the intervention group offspring (-0.034 to -0.002, p=0.028) as compared with control group. Z-scores for weight-for-length/height did not differ between groups when the period 0-48 months was analysed (p=0.23) but for the period of 24-48 months, between-group differences were significant (p=0.012). Lifestyle counselling targeting mothers during the child's first year may be effective in slowing offspring weight gain until 4 years of age. However, larger studies are needed to confirm the findings which may have the potential in combatting the obesity epidemic. Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN21512277.