Pregnancy glucose levels in women without diabetes or gestational diabetes and childhood cardiometabolic risk at 7 years of age.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the association between pregnancy glucose values in women without recognized pregestational diabetes or gestational diabetes and cardiometabolic risk in their children.


METHODS
This longitudinal cohort study of 211 Mexican American mother-child pairs participating in the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas study used multiple logistic regression to estimate the children's risk of nonfasting total cholesterol, nonfasting triglycerides, blood pressure (BP), and waist circumference (WC) ≥75th percentile at 7 years of age associated with a 1-mmol/L (18-mg/dL) increase in maternal pregnancy glucose level, measured 1 hour after a 50-g oral glucose load.


RESULTS
The ORs for children in the upper quartile of diastolic BP, systolic BP, and WC associated with a 1-mmol/L increase in pregnancy glucose level were 1.39 (95% CI, 1.10-1.75), 1.38 (95% CI, 1.10-1.73), and 1.25 (95% CI, 1.02-1.54), respectively. Prepregnancy obesity was independently associated with increased odds of children belonging to the upper quartile of WC; maternal sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and gestational weight gain prior to the glucose test were not independently associated with any of the cardiometabolic outcomes.


CONCLUSIONS
In Mexican American women without recognized pregestational diabetes or gestational diabetes, we found an association between increasing pregnancy glucose values and the children's diastolic and systolic BPs and WC at 7 years of age. Whether interventions to reduce pregnancy glucose values, even if below levels diagnostic of overt disease, will mitigate high BP and abdominal obesity in late childhood remains to be determined.
Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health, School of Public Health, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA. samantha.ehrlich@kp.org
Samantha F
SF
Ehrlich
Lisa G
LG
Rosas
Assiamira
A
Ferrara
Janet C
JC
King
Barbara
B
Abrams
Kim G
KG
Harley
Monique M
MM
Hedderson
Brenda
B
Eskenazi
D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002140:California; D002648:Child; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000097:blood*; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000097:blood / Q000208:ethnology / Q000209:etiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood*; D055105:Waist Circumference
D015415:Biomarkers; D001786:Blood Glucose; D014280:Triglycerides; D002784:Cholesterol