From Micro to Macro: Examining Potential Microbiome Mediated Influences on Human Growth and Health Outcomes Through Breastfeeding and Antibiotic Exposures
Abstract
Human microbiome research has rapidly developed over the past two decades yet absent from most research is the composition and dynamics of microbiomes within human populations. Given the limitations in longitudinal studies which requires decades of repeated microbe taxonomic testing of a population sample, an alternative option is to examine microbiomes and their influences via proxies using pre-existing health datasets. This research demonstrates preliminary associations between presumed disrupted and supportive microbiomes dynamics proxied by antibiotic and breastmilk exposure respectively. Using health record data across the life span from approximately 500,000 U.K. participants, this research demonstrates variable altered growth and health outcomes in antibiotic and breastfed exposure groups evaluated by anthropometric measures and health diagnosis occurrences via T-test, ANOVA, and Chi-square statistical testing. While preliminary, these results indicate microbial modification can produce detectable population associations. These potential trends may allow biological anthropologists an indirect method of examining ancient microbiome dynamics and its influences.