Overview

• Finnish researchers followed 33,095 children to assess the impact of antibiotic exposure on BMI and obesity risk up to age 12.
• Children exposed to antibiotics in the first two years of life showed a 9% greater risk of being overweight and a 20% higher risk of obesity.
• No association was found between BMI and antibiotic use before pregnancy, during pregnancy, or at birth.
• Experts caution against unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions for young children, particularly for non-severe respiratory infections.
• The findings underscore the global challenge of childhood obesity, which affected over 159 million school-aged children in 2022.