title: Association between infant correlates of impulsivity--surgency (extraversion)--and early infant growth.
abstract: Increasing evidence suggests that rapid postnatal weight gain is associated with increased risks of being overweight or obese later in life and of co-morbidities, such as diabetes, the metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. In children as young as two years of age, as well as in adults, an appetitive system-linked impulsivity trait has been demonstrated to be linked with increased overweight, and postulated to act via increased food intake, through greater responsiveness to food and lower self-inhibitory control skills. In this study, we hypothesized that growth in infancy, a critical window for metabolic programming, would be predicted by measures of infant surgency/extraversion, assessed using the Rothbart Infant Behaviour Questionnaire (revised version). Anthropometry was measured at birth and at 3, 6 and 12 months, and weight gains expressed as increases in standardized scores, allowing for adjustment for gender and age, including gestational age. We used conditional weight (CW), a residual of current weight regressed on prior weights, to represent deviations from expected weight gains, from 0 to 3, 3 to 6 and 6 to 12 months. Controlling for significant sociodemographic correlations, multiple regression analyses showed significant prediction of CWs at 3 months but not of CWs at 6 or 12 months by surgency/extraversion. These pilot findings of association between infant growth, during a critical period, and surgency/extraversion, early correlates of impulsivity, warrant further investigation, to ascertain implications for childhood and later weight and body composition.
authors.affiliation: Childhood Nutrition Research Centre, UCL Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK. p.burton@ich.ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Burton
authors.forename: J C K
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Wells
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kennedy
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nicholl
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khakoo
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Fewtrell
mesh_terms: D001724:Birth Weight; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002657:Child Development; D002149:Energy Intake; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013694:Temperament; D015430:Weight Gain