The association between early-life antibiotic use and body mass index at 4-5 years in Pakistani and White British children

Obesity is one of the biggest public health issues facing our world today, with 38% of the world population being overweight or obese. In England this number is even higher with 25.9% of adults being obese and a further 37.9% being overweight (2). There is some evidence of a link between antibiotics, a common treatment for bacterial infections, used during pregnancy and in the first 2 years of infant life and obesity (3,4,5,6,7,8). This may be via the disruption of beneficial bacteria that live in the gut, as antibiotics are non-specific and kill all bacteria. However, this evidence is limited, with none in people of South Asian ethnicity, who have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, which obesity is a risk factor for. This study aims to answer queries about the link between prenatal and postnatal antibiotic use and obesity in children (measured at 4-5 years of age) in the Born in Bradford (BiB) cohort. We will also look at how any link found may vary between White British and South Asian people, being the first study to look at this.