Association of maternal weight gain in pregnancy with offspring obesity and metabolic and vascular traits in childhood.
BACKGROUND
We sought to examine the association of gestational weight gain (GWG) and prepregnancy weight with offspring adiposity and cardiovascular risk factors.


RESULTS
Data from 5154 (for adiposity and blood pressure) and 3457 (for blood assays) mother-offspring pairs from a UK prospective pregnancy cohort were used. Random-effects multilevel models were used to assess incremental GWG (median and range of repeat weight measures per woman: 10 [1, 17]). Women who exceeded the 2009 Institute of Medicine-recommended GWG were more likely to have offspring with greater body mass index, waist, fat mass, leptin, systolic blood pressure, C-reactive protein, and interleukin-6 levels and lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein A1 levels. Children of women who gained less than the recommended amounts had lower levels of adiposity, but other cardiovascular risk factors tended to be similar in this group to those of offspring of women gaining recommended amounts. When examined in more detail, greater prepregnancy weight was associated with greater offspring adiposity and more adverse cardiovascular risk factors at age 9 years. GWG in early pregnancy (0 to 14 weeks) was positively associated with offspring adiposity across the entire distribution but strengthened in women gaining >500 g/wk. By contrast, between 14 and 36 weeks, GWG was only associated with offspring adiposity in women gaining >500 g/wk. GWG between 14 and 36 weeks was positively and linearly associated with adverse lipid and inflammatory profiles, with these associations largely mediated by the associations with offspring adiposity.


CONCLUSIONS
Greater maternal prepregnancy weight and GWG up to 36 weeks of gestation are associated with greater offspring adiposity and adverse cardiovascular risk factors. Before any GWG recommendations are implemented, the balance of risks and benefits of attempts to control GWG for short- and long-term outcomes in mother and child should be ascertained.
Medical Research Council Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Abigail
A
Fraser
Kate
K
Tilling
Corrie
C
Macdonald-Wallis
Naveed
N
Sattar
Marie-Jo
MJ
Brion
Li
L
Benfield
Andy
A
Ness
John
J
Deanfield
Aroon
A
Hingorani
Scott M
SM
Nelson
George Davey
GD
Smith
Debbie A
DA
Lawlor
D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D015430:Weight Gain / Q000502:physiology