. 2018 Nov 27;32(1):106–127. doi: 10.1017/S0954422418000227

Table 1.

Prospective studies (n 31) that measured milk and other dairy product consumption at baseline and change in body composition over time in children

Reference	Details	Exposure	Results and conclusion	Adjustment	Effect
Carruth & Skinner (2001)⁽ ⁴⁵ ⁾	n 53 (29 boys) Age: 2–2·3 years, about 6 years follow-up USA	Dietary Ca and total dairy products	Average dairy product consumption over the years was associated with lower %BF (β –3·54 (se 1·04); P=0·001) and BF g (β –907·06 (se 284·06); P=0·003)	Sex, BMI, Ca, protein, carbohydrates and fat	↓
Skinner et al. (2003)⁽ ⁴⁶ ⁾	n 52 (25 boys) Age: 2–2·3 years, 8-year follow-up USA	Dietary Ca	Average dietary Ca intake over the years was associated with lower %BF in various models (P=0·02 to 0·04)	Sex, total fat, sedentary activity	↓
Phillips et al. (2003)⁽ ³³ ⁾	n 196 (girls) Age: 8–12 years, 4 years post-menarche USA	Dairy Ca and total dairy products	Dairy product consumption and Ca consumption were not associated with BMI z score or %BF during adolescence (P>0·05)	Physical activity, energy intake, parental overweight, protein, soda, fruit and vegetables	↔
Fisher et al. (2004)⁽ ⁴⁸ ⁾	n 192 (girls) Age: 5–9 years, 4-year follow-up USA	Dietary and supplementary Ca	There was no difference in BMI z score from age 5 to 9 years between the girls who met and those who fell below the recommended adequate intake for Ca (P=0·83) despite the higher energy intake in those who met the recommendation	Pubertal status	↔
Rockell et al. (2004)⁽ ⁵⁰ ⁾	n 46 (18 boys) Age: 6–10 years, 2-year follow-up New Zealand	Milk	Non-milk consumers had higher BMI z scores at baseline and 33 % of the children were overweight or obese at the 2-year follow-up compared with the reference population (P<0·01)	Unadjusted	↓
Newby et al. (2004)⁽ ¹⁶⁵ ⁾	n 1345 (675 boys) Age: 2–5 years, 8-month follow-up USA	Milk	There was no association between milk consumption and annual change in weight and BMI z scores (β 0·00 (se 0·01); P=0·84)	Age, sex, birth weight, energy intake, sociodemographic variables, height change	↔
Dixon et al. (2005)⁽ ⁴⁷ ⁾	n 342 (171 boys) Age: 4–10 years, 1-year follow-up USA	Dietary Ca and total dairy products	There were no associations between dietary Ca intake over a year and measures of adiposity in all age groups in hypercholesterolaemic children (P>0·05). However, Ca intake was inversely associated with BMI, sum of skinfolds and trunk skinfolds in the 7- to 10-year-old non-hypercholesterolaemic children	Age, sex, time period, energy intake and fat	↔ (HC) ↓ (Non-HC)
Berkey et al. (2005)⁽ ⁴¹ ⁾	n 12 829 (5550 boys) Age: 9–14 years, 4-year follow-up USA	Milk (full fat, 2 % and 1 % fat)	High milk consumption (≥3 servings/d) was associated with higher BMI compared with low milk consumption (≤0·5 servings/d) in both boys (β 0·08 (se 0·04); P=0·04) and girls (β 0·09 (se 0·03); P=0·007)	Age, dietary factors, ethnicity, height growth, prior BMI z score, Tanner stage, menarche, physical activity and inactivity	↑
Faith et al. (2006)⁽ ¹⁶⁶ ⁾	n 971 (517 boys) Age: 1–5 years, 4-year follow-up Australia	Milk (2 % or whole fat)	There was no association between increased milk intake and excess adiposity gain (BMI z score of β –0·002 (se 0·002); P=0·39)	Baseline child’s weight-for-height z score, sex, race/ethnicity, children’s food and beverage intake, parental feeding styles and attitudes variables	↔
Moore et al. (2006)⁽ ⁵⁵ ⁾	n 92 (56 boys) Age: 3–6 years, 8-year follow-up USA	Total dairy products	Low dairy product consumption (<1·75 servings/d) was associated with greater subcutaneous fat (25 mm; P=0·005) and higher BMI (2 units; P=0·046) by the time of early adolescence compared with high dairy product consumption	Age, physical activity, maternal education, baseline anthropometry, saturated fat, energy intake	↓
Striegel-Moore et al. (2006)⁽ ⁵¹ ⁾	n 2371 (girls) Age: 9–10 years, 10-year follow-up USA	Milk	BMI decreased by β –0·002 (se 0·006) units for every 100 g of milk (plain or flavoured) although not statistically significant (P>0·05)	Race, site, visit, other beverages and energy intake	↔
Tam et al. (2006)⁽ ¹⁶⁷ ⁾	n 281 (141 boys) Age: mean 7·7 (sd 0·6) years, 4·0–6·6 years follow-up Australia	Milk	There was no association between milk consumption at baseline and BMI status at follow-up (P=0·995)	Unadjusted	↔
Johnson et al. (2007)⁽ ¹⁶⁸ ⁾	n 362, age 5 years n 471, age 7 years, 2–4 years follow-up UK	Milk	There was an inverse association between milk consumption at 5 or 7 years of age (–0·51 (95 % CI –0·86, –0·16); P<0·01) and fatness at 9 years (–0·35 (95 % CI –0·57, –0·14); P<0·01)	Age, sex, BMI at baseline, height at 9 years, television viewing, maternal education, paternal class and BMI, energy intake misreporting, energy density, dietary factors	↓
Günther et al. (2007)⁽ ¹³⁹ ⁾	n 203 (102 boys) Age: 6 months, 7-year follow-up Germany	Dairy protein	Higher dairy protein consumption (% of energy) at age 12 months was positively associated with BMI-SDS at 7 years of age (T1: 0·03 (95 % CI –0·21, 0·27) v. T3: 0·35 (95 % CI 0·13, 0·57); P=0·02)	Sex, maternal overweight, maternal education, protein, fat, fibre, energy intake, siblings in the dataset, firstborn status, smoking in the house, baseline BMI-SDS and %BF	↑
Barr (2007)⁽ ⁴⁹ ⁾	n 45 (girls) Age: mean 10·5 (sd 0·6) years, 2-year follow-up Canada	Dietary and supplementary Ca	There was no association between Ca consumption and 2-year changes in %BF and % trunk fat in girls (P>0·05)	Unadjusted	↔
Kral et al. (2008)⁽ ¹⁶⁹ ⁾	n 49 Age: 3–6 years, 3-year follow-up USA	Energy consumed from milk at ages 3–5 years	Greater increases in energy consumed from milk were inversely related to changes in children’s waist circumference (β –0·01 (se 0·004); P=0·04)	Change in waist circumference from ages 3 to 5 years and total energy intake at age 3 years	↓
Fiorito et al. (2009)⁽ ¹⁷⁰ ⁾	n 170 (girls) Age: 5 years, 10-year follow-up USA	Milk	Milk consumption at 5 years of age was not associated with greater adiposity or weight status over a 10-year period (P>0·05)	Unadjusted	↔
Huus et al. (2009)⁽ ¹⁷¹ ⁾	n 14 224 (6866 boys) Age: 2·5 years, 2·5-year follow-up Sweden	Cream/crème fraîche, cheese, ice-cream	Cheese consumption at 2·5 years of age was positively while cream/crème fraîche was inversely associated with overweight or obesity at 5 years of age	Mother’s education and BMI, father’s education and BMI, heredity of diabetes, vegetables, potatoes, fried potatoes, eggs, sausage, chocolate, candies, porridge	↑ (Cheese) ↓ (Cream)
Vanselow et al. (2009)⁽ ³⁶ ⁾	n 2294 (1032 boys) Age: mean 14·9 (sd 0·1) years, 5-year follow-up USA	Milk	There was an inverse association between milk consumption and mean weight gain over a 5-year period without displaying a dose–response relationship (0 servings/week=2·34 (se 0·24) kg v. 0·5–6 servings/week=1·68 (se 0·11) kg v. >7 servings/week=1·93 (se 0·11) kg; P=0·03)	Age, sex, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, baseline BMI, physical activity, television viewing, beverage, coffee and tea intake	↓
Huh et al. (2010)⁽ ³⁹ ⁾	n 852 (466 boys) Age: 2 years, 1-year follow-up USA	Dairy products and milk (full-fat and reduced-fat)	There was no association between dairy product or milk (either full- or reduced-fat) consumption at 2 years of age and BMI z score or with the risk of incident overweight at age 3 years (P>0·05)	Age, sex, race/ethnicity, baseline BMI z score, energy intake, non-dairy beverage intake, television viewing, maternal BMI and education, paternal BMI	↔
Noel et al. (2011)⁽ ³⁸ ⁾	n 2245 (1030 boys) Age: 10 years, 1–3 years follow-up UK	Milk (full-fat and reduced-fat)	There was no association between milk consumption at age 10 years and BF at 13 years of age (β –0·15 (95 % CI –0·52, 0·23); P=0·45). Changes in milk consumption from 10 to 13 years of age were not associated with changes in %BF from 11 to 13 years of age	Age, sex, height, physical activity, pubertal status, maternal BMI and education, fat, sugar-sweetened beverages, cereals, energy intake and baseline BMI	↔
Garden et al. (2011)⁽ ³² ⁾	n 362 (183 boys) Age: 18 months, 8-year follow-up Australia	Total dairy products	Higher consumption of dairy products (% of total energy) was inversely associated with BMI at 8 years (β –0·21 (95 % CI –0·41, 0·01); P=0·04)	Sex, asthma study intervention group, birth weight, breast-feeding for 6 months, parental obesity status, ethnicity, smoking in pregnancy, paternal education	↓
Lin et al. (2012)⁽ ¹⁷² ⁾	n 5968 (2900 boys) Age: 11 years, 2-year follow-up China	Milk	There was no association between milk consumption at 11 years and BMI z score at approximately 13 years of age (β –0·01 (95 % CI –0·07, 0·05); P=0·65)	Sex, baseline BMI z score, birth order, maternal age and mother’s birthplace, highest parental education, physical activity, vegetable, fruit and soft drink intakes	↔
Rangan et al. (2012)⁽ ³¹ ⁾	n 335 (169 boys) Age: 16–24 months, 7·7–9·2 years follow-up Australia	Total dairy products	There was no association between dairy product consumption at 18 months and BMI at age 8 years (P=0·09)	Unadjusted	↔
Noel et al. (2013)⁽ ³⁵ ⁾	n 2270 (1028 boys) Age: 10 years, 1–3 years follow-up UK	Flavoured milk	Flavoured milk consumption at age 10 years was associated with smaller reduction in %BF in overweight/obese children from ages 11 to 13 years compared with the non-flavoured milk consumption (–0·79 (95 % CI –2·46, –0·88) v. –2·19 (95 % CI –3·60, –0·78); P=0·02, respectively)	Age, sex, height, height², baseline BMI, physical activity, pubertal status, maternal BMI and education, fat, cereal, fruit, vegetable, sugar-sweetened, milk and energy intakes	↔
Scharf et al. (2013)⁽ ⁴⁰ ⁾	n 8300 (4200 boys) Age: 4 years, 2-year follow-up USA	Milk (full-fat and reduced-fat)	There was no association between either full- or reduced-fat milk at age 4 years in the change in BMI z score over the 2-year follow-up (P=0·6)	Sex, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status	↔
Hasnain et al. (2014)⁽ ⁵³ ⁾	n 103 Age: 3–5 years, 12-year follow-up USA	Milk	Higher milk consumption at ages 3–9 years was negatively associated with %BF at ages 15–17 years (T1, 30 % v. T3, 22·6 %; P=0·009)	Age, baseline anthropometry, fat, television viewing, beverage intake, maternal BMI and education	↓
DeBoer et al. (2014)⁽ ⁵⁴ ⁾	n 8950 (4550 boys) Age: 4 years, 1-year follow-up USA	Milk	There was no association between milk consumption at 4 years and BMI z score (P=0·79) or weight-for-height z score (P=0·24) at age 5 years	Sex, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status and milk type	↔
Bigornia et al. (2014)⁽ ⁴² ⁾	n 2455 (1154 boys) Age: 10 years, 3-year follow-up UK	Dairy products (full-fat and reduced-fat)	High full-fat dairy product consumption at age 10 years was associated with lower risk of total BF mass at 13 years (OR 0·64 (95 % CI 0·40, 1·00); P=0·04)	Age, sex, height, total dairy products at 13 years, adiposity at 10 years, maternal education and overweight status, physical activity, pubertal stage and dieting	↔ (Dairy products) ↓ (Full-fat dairy products)
Braun et al. (2016)⁽ ¹⁴⁰ ⁾	n 3564 (1748 boys) Age: 12 months, 8-year follow-up Netherlands	Dairy protein	A 10 g higher total dairy protein intake/d at 1 year was associated with a 0·07-sd increase in weight (95 % CI 0·03, 0·012; P<0·05) and a 0·07-sd increase in BMI (95 % CI 0·02, 0·11) at 9 years. Similar effect size for non-dairy food sources	Birth weight z score, breast-feeding, playing sports, household income, and maternal BMI at enrolment, education, folic acid use during pregnancy, smoking during pregnancy and non-dairy animal protein	↑
Dubois et al. (2016)⁽ ⁴³ ⁾	n 152 twin pairs Age: 9 years, 5-year follow-up Canada	Milk (full-fat and reduced-fat)	Milk consumption at 9 years was positively associated with BMI change from 9 to 14 years. Reduced-fat milk was positively associated with BMI change in girls	Unadjusted	↑ (Milk) ↑ (Reduced-fat milk for girls)

%BF, percentage body fat; BF, body fat; ↓, negative association between exposure (dairy products) and a measure of body fatness; ↔, null association between exposure (dairy products) and a measure of body fatness; HC, hypercholesterolaemic; non-HC, normocholesterolaemic; ↑, positive association between exposure (dairy products) and a measure of body fatness; SDS, standard deviation score; T1, tertile 1; T3, tertile 3.