88 Vegetarian diet, growth and micronutrient stores in childhood: A prospective cohort study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background Vegetarian diets are becoming increasingly popular among Canadians, yet few studies have evaluated the relationship between a vegetarian diet and childhood growth and nutritional status. Since vegetarian diets can be less energy dense and may have lower micronutrient content, we hypothesized that a vegetarian diet may affect childhood growth including lower adiposity and height, as well as lower micronutrient stores. Objectives The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between vegetarian diet and growth, including adiposity and height among healthy children 6 months to 10 years of age. Secondary objectives included the examination of the relationship between vegetarian diet and iron and vitamin D stores. We also explored whether cow’s milk intake or age modified the associations between vegetarian diet and growth, and micronutrient stores. Design/Methods This was a prospective cohort study of healthy children age 6 months to 10 years. The primary exposure was vegetarian diet measured by parent report. The primary outcome was BMI z-score. Secondary outcomes included height-for-age z-score, serum ferritin, and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Anthropometric measures and venous blood samples were collected at health supervision visits by trained research assistants. Linear mixed effect modelling was used to determine the association between vegetarian diet, growth, and micronutrient stores. Results A total of 8912 children (n = 248 vegetarian) participated. In the adjusted models there was no evidence of an association between vegetarian diet and BMI z-score (p = 0.605, 95% CI: -0.06, 0.10), height-for-age z-score (p 0.057, 95% CI: -0.16, 0.002), serum ferritin (p = 0.768, 95% CI: -3.84, 2.84), or 25-hydroxyvitamin D (p = 0.204, 95% CI: -2.14, 0.46). The relationship between vegetarian diet and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was modified by child age. Volume of cow’s milk intake did not modify the relationships between vegetarian diet and BMI z-score, height-for-age z-score, serum ferritin, or 25-hydroxyvitamin D. In a secondary analysis, we examined adiposity through weight status categories and found children with a vegetarian diet had higher odds of being underweight (BMI z-score <-2) (OR 1.9, p = 0.006, 95% CI 1.21-3.00). Conclusion In this prospective cohort study, evidence of an association between vegetarian diet and lower BMI z-score, height-for-age z-score, and micronutrient stores was not found. Our results suggest children with vegetarian diets had higher odds of being underweight. Future research is needed to evaluate dietary factors and patterns of children following vegetarian diets, especially those with an underweight weight status.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".