Relationship between maternal pre‐pregnancy body mass index, gestational weight gain and childhood fatness at 6–7 years by air displacement plethysmography

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of maternal pre‐pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) on offspring body composition. In this prospective cohort study, offspring body composition at 6 years of age was obtained through air displacement plethysmography. Linear regression was used to obtain crude and adjusted coefficients. Information regarding offspring body composition and maternal pre‐pregnancy BMI was available for 3156 children and on offspring body composition and GWG for 3129 children. There was a direct association of maternal pre‐pregnancy BMI and GWG with offspring's fat mass (FM), fat‐free mass (FFM), fat mass index (FMI), fat‐free mass index (FFMI) and body fat percent (BF%) in crude and adjusted analyses. After adjustment for co‐variables, for each kg m−2 of maternal pre‐pregnancy BMI increase, there was a mean increment of 0.13 kg in the offspring FFM, 0.06 kg m−2 in FFMI, 0.11 kg in FM, 0.07 kg m−2 in FMI and 0.18% in BF%. For each kilogram of maternal GWG increase, there was a mean increment of 0.08 kg in offspring's FM, 0.05 kg m−2 in FMI, 0.04 kg in FFM, 0.01 kg m−2 in FFMI and 0.18 % in BF%. Mothers with a higher pre‐pregnancy BMI or GWG tend to have children with greater adiposity at age 6 years. Fetal overnutrition is more likely among mothers with greater BMI during pregnancy; as a consequence, it can accelerate the childhood obesity epidemic.

Maternal obesity and offspring body composition by indirect methods: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Among the 20 articles that met the inclusion criteria, six included both exposures 6,27,28,29,30,31 . The average score of the selected articles was 15.4, with a minimum of 13 and a maximum of 18.…”

“…Ten studies were conducted in the United States 5,6,29,30,32,33,34,35,36,37 , two in the United Kingdom 28,38 , two in Denmark 32,39 , one in Australia 27 , one in Brazil 31 , and one in Portugal 40 ( Table 1). The number of participants in the cohorts ranged from 78 34 to 3,263 38 .…”

“…Although these studies applied different inclusion and exclusion criteria, all consistently excluded premature newborns, those with congenital abnormalities, offspring of mothers with a history of pregestational or gestational diabetes, and children with chronic diseases. With the exception of five studies 27,29,31,35,36 , all other studies included only Caucasian participants.…”

“…Eight studies measured body composition in newborns 5,6,27,29,32,33,37,40 , whilst all other studies measured body composition in childhood (2-11 years of age). The methods for the assessment of body composition included DEXA in eight studies 28,30,32,34,35,36,38,39 , ADP in seven 5,6,27,31,33,37,38 and TOBEC in one 29 (Table 2). …”

“…13 reported fat mass 5,6,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,37,38,39,40 and two FMI 28,31 as the primary outcome. In nine studies 5,28,29,31,32,33,34,35,38 univariate analyses showed a statistically significant positive association between maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and fat mass in offspring. This association remained significant after adjusting for confounders in six of the studies 28,29,31,32,34,38 .…”