title: Associations between household income, height and BMI in contemporary US children: infancy through early childhood.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous studies report positive associations between household income and height in childhood and negative associations between income and body mass index (BMI). No study has evaluated concurrent associations in early-life.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the association between household income and anthropometric development in early-life.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) is a representative sample of US children born in 2001 and followed from ~9 months through 5 years. A generalized linear mixed modelling framework estimates income associations to the levels and velocities of height and BMI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A doubling of permanent income is associated with an ~0.26 cm height advantage over the ages of the sample and an approximate 0.11 cm/year faster velocity at 9 months. All race-sex sub-groups show some positive association between income and height. Income shows little association to BMI at 9 months but by 5 years a doubling of income is associated with a 0.25 kg/m(2) lower BMI. This is suggested to derive from a lower BMI velocity associated with higher income. The BMI relationships are generally reflective of white and Hispanic children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that associations between income and anthropometric development in US children have origins in early-life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Houston - Clear Lake , Houston, TX , USA.
authors.forename: Jason E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Murasko
mesh_terms: D000886:Anthropometry; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: Early-life; growth; socioeconomic