Prenatal cocaine exposure and childhood obesity at nine years.
Little is known about the association between prenatal cocaine exposure and obesity. We tested whether prenatal cocaine exposure increases the likelihood of obesity in 561 9-year-old term children from the Maternal Lifestyle Study (MLS). Overall, 21.6% of children met criterion for obesity (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 95th percentile, age and sex-specific). While there was no overall cocaine effect on obesity, multivariate logistic analysis revealed that children exposed to cocaine but not alcohol were 4 times more likely to be obese (OR 4.11, CI 2.04-9.76) than children not exposed to either drug. No increase in obesity prevalence was found in children exposed to alcohol but not cocaine (OR 1.08, CI .59-1.93) or both (OR 1.21, CI 0.66-2.22). Alcohol exposure may attenuate the effect of cocaine exposure on obesity. Increased obesity associated with cocaine but not alcohol exposure was first observed at 7 years. BMI was also elevated from 3 to 9 years in children exposed to cocaine but not alcohol, due to increasing weight but normal height. Prenatal exposure to cocaine may alter the neuroendocrine system and metabolic processes resulting in increased weight gain and childhood obesity.
Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, Providence, RI 02905, USA. Linda_Lagasse@brown.edu
Linda L
LL
LaGasse
Ronnesia B
RB
Gaskins
Henrietta S
HS
Bada
Seetha
S
Shankaran
Jing
J
Liu
Barry M
BM
Lester
Charles R
CR
Bauer
Rosemary D
RD
Higgins
Abhik
A
Das
Mary
M
Roberts
D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012923:Social Class; D055815:Young Adult