Maternal Obesity, Gestational Diabetes, and Central Nervous System Birth Defects

Abstract

Several large-scale cohort studies suggest that obese mothers are at increased risk of having infants with neural tube defects and, possibly, other central nervous system (CNS) birth defects. Because obesity and diabetes share similar metabolic abnormalities, a study was planned to determine whether gestational diabetes influences the association between maternal obesity and CNS birth defects. In this population-based case-control study, covering the years 1997 to mid-2000, structured telephone interviews were conducted with mothers of offspring having anencephaly (n ϭ 120), spina bifida (n ϭ 184), holoprosencephaly (n ϭ 49), or isolated hydrocephaly (n ϭ 124). Control women whose infants were neurologically normal were randomly chosen from the same hospitals. Approximately 60% of both cases and control subjects responded. Maternal obesity was defined as a body mass index of 30 kg/m 2 or higher.Pregestational diabetes, both type 1 and type 2, correlated closely with holoprosencephaly (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 47; 95% confidence interval [CI],, and isolated hydrocephaly (OR, 12; 95% CI, 2.9-47). There was no increase in the risk of anencephaly or spina bifida.Gestational diabetes increased only the risk of holoprosencephaly (OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.0-8.4). Mothers of infants with anencephaly were less likely than control mothers to have gestational diabetes. Obese mothers were likelier than control subjects to have infants with any of the 4 CNS birth defects. Underweight women were less likely to have an infant with spina bifida. The association between maternal obesity and an increased risk of neural tube defects and isolated hydrocephaly held for all ethnic groups. Associations between maternal obesity and anencephaly (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.2-4.3), spina bifida (OR, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.7-4.5), and isolated hydrocephaly (OR, 2.7; 95% CI, 1.5-5.0) persisted after adjusting for maternal age, ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol use, and periconceptional vitamin use. For both spina bifida and holoprosencephaly, the joint effects of maternal obesity and gestational diabetes appeared to be interactive.These findings suggest that gestational diabetes and maternal obesity may increase the risk of CNS birth defects through common mechanisms, and they strongly support the need for ways of preventing these conditions. EDITORIAL COMMENT(The epidemic of obesity is worldwide. The prevalence of a body mass index (BMI) Ն30 kg/m 2 in women 18 years of age and older increased from 12% to 18% from 1991 to 1998 (Mokdad AH, et al. JAMA 1999;282:1519). The relationship between obesity and diabetes is well known. Does the combination increase the risk of congenital malformations? To investigate the risk of neural tube defect (NTD)-affected pregnancies among obese women (BMI Ն29 kg/m 2 ) compared with women of average prepregnancy weight, Shaw performed a population-based case-controlled study of all hospitals in 55 of 58 counties in California. Compared OBSTETRICS Volume 60, Number 6 OBSTETRICAL AND GYNECOLOGICAL SURVEY 341 with women whose BMI...

Awareness of consequences of obesity on reproductive health problems among women in an urban area in South India

“…Apart from these complications are the technical problems associated with managing obese pregnant mothers during antenatal care as a consequence of reduced ultrasound accuracy, requirement of larger cuff to measure blood pressure and difficulty posed during external electronic foetal monitoring. 14 Prior studies have also found neonatal complications such as stillbirths 15,16 , congenital anomalies 17,18 and macrosomia 6 as well as gynecological problems like risk of breast cancer 19 and endometrial cancer 20 to be due to obesity.…”

Obesidade e gravidez

“…A taxa de malformações fetais é maior em mulheres obesas do que naquelas com peso normal [22][23][24][25] . O excesso de tecido adiposo parece interferir no metabolismo dos folatos, o que explicaria a maior incidência de defeitos do tubo neural entre as obesas, mesmo naquelas que recebem suplementação de ácido fólico nas doses recomendadas 22,24,26 . O risco de óbito fetal é também significativamente maior entre as mulheres com peso acima da média, por motivos ainda desconhecidos 27 .…”

Maternal diabetes and renal agenesis/dysgenesis

“…Multiple studies link maternal diabetes with an increased risk of congenital malformations, including anomalies of the cardiovascular, skeletal, central nervous, and urinary systems (Becerra et al, 1990;Ramos-Arroyo et al, 1992;Anderson et al, 2005;Neilson et al, 2005;Correa et al, 2008;Banhidy et al, 2010). Despite the observed association between maternal diabetes and major congenital defects, few studies have evaluated the relationship between renal agenesis/dysgenesis and maternal diabetes (Ramos-Arroyo et al, 1992;Parikh et al, 2002;Neilson et al, 2005;Correa et al, 2008;Banhidy et al, 2010).…”