Maternal prepregnancy body mass index and psychomotor development in children.
BACKGROUND
In a prospective study, the association between maternal nutritional status and psychomotor development of low-income African-American children was evaluated. We hypothesized that low maternal body mass index (BMI) would predict worse neurodevelopmental status in children, while higher maternal BMIs would be associated with better neurodevelopmental outcomes.


METHODS
Psychomotor tests for general intelligence and motor skills were given to 355 children at a mean age of 5.3 years. Maternal nutritional status was assessed by prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and weight gain during pregnancy.


RESULTS
Fifty-four percent of the women in this study were overweight or obese. The means of the general IQ, nonverbal and verbal ability, and Gross Motor Scales of the children were 82.1 +/- 12.6, 87.4 +/- 15.7, 80.1 +/- 10.8 and 332.3 +/- 13.2, respectively. Seventeen percent of the children had general IQ scores of less than 70. To our surprise, in multiple regression analyses, adjusting for other covariates, maternal prepregnancy BMI was a significant negative predictor of IQ (beta = - 0.25, P = 0.001) and nonverbal ability (beta = - 0.29, P = 0.02). The IQ and nonverbal scores of children of women who were obese before pregnancy were approximately 5 units lower than for children whose mothers had a normal prepregnancy BMI. The other significant predictors of IQ and nonverbal scores of the children were childcare status (beta = 3.5, P = 0.04 and beta = 0.26, P < 0.0001, respectively) and the mother's receptive language scores (beta = 5.2, P = 0.01 and beta = 0.25, P < 0.0001, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
This study of low-income African-American children indicates that obese women are at risk of having children with diminished intellectual ability, but not motor skills.
Neggers
Yasmin H
YH
Department of Human Nutrition, University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL, USA. yneggers@ches.ua.edu
Goldenberg
Robert L
RL
Ramey
Sharon L
SL
Cliver
Suzane P
SP
D001741:Black or African American; D000886:Anthropometry; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007360:Intelligence / Q000502:physiology*; D007806:Language Disorders; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D009752:Nutritional Status / Q000502:physiology*; D009765:Obesity; D011203:Poverty; D011247:Pregnancy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015430:Weight Gain