The effects of a lifestyle intervention (the HealthyMoms app) during pregnancy on infant body composition: Secondary outcome analysis from a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background: Pregnancy has been identified as a window for childhood obesity prevention. Although lifestyle interventions in pregnancy can prevent excessive gestational weight gain (GWG), little is known whether such interventions also affect infant growth and body composition.Objectives: To investigate (i) the effects of a 6-month lifestyle intervention (the HealthyMoms app) on infant body composition 1-2 weeks postpartum, and(ii) whether a potential intervention effect on infant body composition is mediated through maternal GWG.Methods: This is a secondary outcome analysis of the HealthyMoms randomized controlled trial. Air-displacement plethysmography was used to measure body composition in 305 healthy full-term infants. Results:We observed no statistically significant effect on infant weight (β = À0.004, p = 0.94), length (β = À0.19, p = 0.46), body fat percentage (β = 0.17, p = 0.72), or any of the other body composition variables in the multiple regression models (all p ≥ 0.27). Moreover, we observed no mediation effect through GWG on infant body composition.Conclusions: Our findings support that HealthyMoms may be implemented in healthcare to promote a healthy lifestyle in pregnant women without compromising offspring growth. Further research is required to elucidate whether lifestyle interventions in pregnancy also may result in beneficial effects on infant body composition and impact future obesity risk.

Childhood follow‐up of the GRoW randomized trial: Metformin in addition to dietary and lifestyle advice for pregnant women with overweight or obesity

“…In the recent past, there has been considerable research on pregnancy dietary and lifestyle interventions to ameliorate the impact of overweight, obesity and excess gestational weight gain on pregnancy, birth and long‐term maternal and child outcomes 29 . Findings from the infant and child follow‐up studies of these interventional studies have shown no effect on child adiposity outcomes between infants and children exposed to intervention in‐utero and those who were not 7–9,30–32 . The findings of these studies and studies of metformin during pregnancy highlight the likelihood that pregnancy interventions do not reduce the risk of childhood obesity and that we should focus effort on interventions prior to conception.…”

“…29 Findings from the infant and child follow-up studies of these interventional studies have shown no effect on child adiposity outcomes between infants and children exposed to intervention inutero and those who were not. [7][8][9][30][31][32] The findings of these studies and studies of metformin during pregnancy highlight the likelihood that pregnancy interventions do not reduce the risk of childhood obesity and that we should focus effort on interventions prior to conception.…”

Associations between maternal metabolic parameters during pregnancy and fetal and child growth trajectories from 20 weeks' gestation to 5 years of age: Secondary analysis from the ROLO longitudinal birth cohort study

“…Fetal and child growth are influenced by multiple factors, including parental characteristics, genetics, environmental, and societal factors 39–41 . More recently, the influence of various lifestyle interventions implemented during pregnancy on childhood growth have been explored 42–44 . In this study, we aimed to perform an in‐depth exploration of the association of a number of key maternal metabolic parameters which have previously been linked to fetal and child growth by using linear spine modelling.…”

Physical Activity during Pregnancy and Childhood Obesity: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Subsequently, 20 articles were not included due to the following reasons: Ultimately, 30 studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria, with 16,137 women from 11 countries and three continents. All studies were RCTs, and the intervention used was supervised physical exercise [53,56,68,69,74] or advice and recommendations [54,55,[57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][70][71][72][73][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82] (Table 1).…”