Parental pre‐pregnancy BMI influences on offspring BMI and waist circumference at 21 years

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the prospective association between parental pre-pregnancy BMI and adult male and female offspring BMI and waist circumference (WC).Methods: Sub-sample of 2,229 parent-offspring pairs with parental pre-pregnancy BMI and offspring BMI and WC at 21 years were used from the MUSP (Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy cohort). Multivariable results were adjusted for maternal factors around pregnancy (e.g. gestational weight and smoking during pregnancy) and offspring factors in early life (e.g. birth weight) and at 14 years (e.g. sports participation and mealtime with family). Results:After adjustments for confounders, each unit increase in paternal and maternal BMI, the BMI of young adult offspring increased by 0.33kg/m 2 and 0.35kg/m 2 , and the WC increased by 0.76 cm and 0.62 cm, respectively. In the combination of parents' weight status, offspring at 21 years were six times the risk being overweight/obese (OW/OB) when both parents were OW/OB, compared to offspring of healthy weight parents. Conclusions: Prenatal parental BMI are independently related to adult offspring BMI and WC.Implications: Both prenatal paternal-maternal weight status are important determinants of offspring weight status in long-term. Further studies are warranted to investigate the underlying mechanisms.

Paternal metabolic and cardiovascular programming of their offspring: A systematic scoping review

“…We screened n = 85 studies with full-text for eligibility. After manual research of reference lists (n = 9 studies identified [15][16][17][18][19][20][21]), n = 66 studies were finally included in this systematic scoping review. We selected n = 45 epidemiological and clinical studies and n = 21 experimental studies.…”

Influence of post-partum BMI change on childhood obesity and energy intake

“…Evidence on the differential influence of the father and mother is heterogeneous. Several studies have reported similar associations between the paternal and maternal BMI, and that of their children [18,20–24], however, some literature indicates that mothers have a greater influence on their children´s BMI [15,25–28], particularly, in early life [29]. The majority of the mentioned studies have been carried out in cohorts from developed countries and only a few on Hispanic populations [30,31] living in the US, so there is a lack of longitudinal studies in developing countries.…”

“…Even that there was a statistical significant difference in schooling with respect to Post-partum BMI pattern (p = 0.048), we don’t think that education would be related to the way mothers behave in the different groups given that the observed differences are not meaningful. We interpreted maternal anthropometry first as a proxy of the intrauterine environment where over caloric maternal diet is associated to obesity of the offspring [18,20], consistent with previous studies that demonstrated a positive and significant correlation between gestational weight gain and post-partum weight change, showing an increase of almost half kilogram of weight retention per every kilogram increase during pregnancy [47]. Second, as a reflection of an obesogenic environment that promoted the provision of over caloric diets to their children.…”

“…The association between the parent’s BMI and their children has been widely documented [14,15]. The strongest association has been found when both parents are OWO [16–18] and at the upper end of the BMI distribution, with no major intergenerational changes when parents have a recommended BMI< 25kg/m 2 [19]. Evidence on the differential influence of the father and mother is heterogeneous.…”

An Exercise‐Only Intervention in Obese Fathers Restores Glucose and Insulin Regulation in Conjunction with the Rescue of Pancreatic Islet Cell Morphology and MicroRNA Expression in Male Offspring

“…Paternal obesity now occurs in 28% and 33% of expectant fathers in Australia [ 1 ] and the USA [ 2 ], respectively. While it has become widely accepted that increasing maternal body mass index (BMI) and poor nutrition during gestation or lactation are associated with obesity and metabolic disorders in children [ 3 , 4 ], there is now a growing body of evidence that a father’s BMI and nutritional intake at conception can also influence the BMI of children [ 5 ]. However, human datasets are usually confounded by the inability to delineate whether this paternal influence is due to the common “obesogenic” raising environment or genetic predispositions shared by both father and child.…”