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Early Life Exposure to Food Insecurity is Associated with Changes in BMI During Childhood Among Latinos from CHAMACOS

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Abstract

Early life exposures have been associated with obesity later in life. We aim to assess the association between early life exposure to food insecurity and change in BMI throughout childhood and adolescents. Food security status and growth variables from 243 Mother–child dyads from the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas study were assessed 7 times over a 12-year period. Generalized log linear models with Poisson distributions and linear regression models were implemented to assess the associations between early life food insecurity and obesity and growth. Early life food insecurity was associated with a 0.43 (0.01, 0.82) kg/m2 decrease in BMI from age 2 to 3.5, and a 0.92 kg/m2 (0.38, 1.46) increase in BMI among boys from ages 3.5 to 5, after adjusting for covariates. Sex and age modify the association between early life exposure to food insecurity and BMI.

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Abbreviations

BMI:

Body Mass Index

CHAMACOS:

The Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas

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Acknowledgements

B.E., R.G., A.H., K.H., B.L., and K.M. designed research; B.E. provided the database; R.G., A.H. analyzed data; B.E., R.G., and B.L., wrote the paper. R.G. had primary responsibility for final content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This research was supported by the following Grants: RD 83171001 and RD 826709 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and PO1 ES009605 and RO1 ES015572 from NIEHS. The contents of this publication are solely the authors’ responsibility and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIEHS, NIH, EPA or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Sciences, California State University East Bay, 25800 Carlos Bee Boulevard, SF 535, Hayward, CA, 94542, USA

    Ryan J. Gamba

  2. Center for Children’s Environmental Health Research, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Brenda Eskenazi

  3. Division of Community Health Sciences, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Kristine Madsen & Barbara A. Laraia

  4. Division of Biostatistics, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Alan Hubbard

  5. Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health (CERCH), School of Public Health, University of California, 1995 University Avenue, BerkeleyBerkeley, CA, USA

    Kim Harley

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  1. Ryan J. Gamba
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Correspondence to Ryan J. Gamba.

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Brenda Eskenazi, Ryan Gamba, Kim Harley, Alan Hubbard, Barbara Laraia and Kristine Madsen declare no conflicts of interest.

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Gamba, R.J., Eskenazi, B., Madsen, K. et al. Early Life Exposure to Food Insecurity is Associated with Changes in BMI During Childhood Among Latinos from CHAMACOS. J Immigrant Minority Health 23, 733–740 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-020-01125-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-020-01125-z

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