Abstract 4259: The relation of childhood diet to the timing of puberty in boys: Results from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Health and Development
Authors: ALIMUJIANG ALIYA , Colditz Graham A. , Berkey Catherine S. , Sutcliffe Siobhan 
Published: July 2017

Background: Although accumulating evidence from different disciplines supports an early-life contribution to prostate cancer (PCa) risk, few studies have focused on this life stage. One major reason for this dearth of research is the decades-long span of time between early-life exposures and PCa onset, making traditional epidemiologic study designs challenging. To overcome this challenge, we took advantage of several well-supported or recently observed PCa risk factors - age at peak height velocity (APHV), height at age 13, and adult height - to shorten the time required to study early-life exposures and to improve exposure classification by using these risk factors as markers of future PCa risk. We focused our analysis on childhood diet because it influenced APHV in a similar study of girls, and because of its strongly suspected role in PCa development.

Methods: We analyzed data from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Health and Development, which followed 67 Caucasian boys from Boston from birth through adolescence in the 1930-40s. At each biannual (or annual) visit, study staff measured participants’ height and weight, and assessed their diet by dietary history interviews. We used these data to estimate age- and energy-adjusted nutrient intake, diet scores (combining information on fat and animal protein from ages 1-10 years into a Western diet score, and information on vegetable protein from ages 1-10 into a healthy diet score), age-specific height-z-scores, body mass index, peak height velocity (PHV), and APHV. We investigated crude associations between dietary and anthropometric measures by Pearson correlation coefficients, and multivariable-adjusted associations by linear regression.

Results: Childhood consumption of a Western diet (as measured by our fat-animal protein score) was positively associated with height at age 13 (beta coefficient (ß)=0.08, P&lt;0.001) and adult height (ß=0.05, P=0.013), and inversely associated with APHV (ß=-0.06, P=0.014). In contrast, childhood consumption of a healthy diet (as measured by our vegetable protein score) was inversely associated with height at age 13 (ß= -0.09, P=0.008). No notable associations were observed for diet and PHV. After controlling for height at ages 1-2 as a marker of genetic growth potential, only the association between Western diet and height at age 13 remained significant (ß=0.04, P&lt;0.001).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that consumption of a Western diet during childhood (1-10 years of age) is associated with greater height at age 13, a possible marker of both earlier onset of puberty and greater height. As this measure was recently associated with later PCa risk/mortality in a large Danish cohort study, our findings may point towards an early dietary contribution to PCa risk. Future studies should explore this possible association further for its potential to inform primary PCa prevention strategies.

Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting.

Citation Format: ALIYA ALIMUJIANG, Graham A. Colditz, Catherine S. Berkey, Siobhan Sutcliffe. The relation of childhood diet to the timing of puberty in boys: Results from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Health and Development [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4259. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4259