title: Gestational diabetes mellitus, maternal obesity, and adiposity in offspring.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the effects of maternal gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) on offspring adiposity in a well-characterized cohort of Mexican American mother-child pairs.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study included 62 Mexican American mothers and their index offspring. Maternal GDM and normal glucose status during index pregnancy were documented, and mothers were previously matched by age, body mass index (BMI), and parity. Mother-child pairs were recruited when offspring were between the ages of 5 and 16 years. A medical history was collected, and anthropometrics were measured. Main outcome measures were offspring BMI, BMI z-scores, BMI percentiles, and hip and waist circumferences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  GDM-exposed offspring (n = 37) had greater measures of BMI (all P ≤ .02) and greater waist and hip circumferences (both P = .002) compared with 25 offspring of non-GDM mothers. Adjustment for offspring age, sex, Tanner stage, birth weight, months of breastfeeding, maternal prepregnancy BMI, and pregnancy weight gain attenuated the differences, but BMI z-score and BMI percentile remained significantly greater in the GDM-exposed group (P < .05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Intrauterine exposure to GDM is associated with greater adiposity in Mexican American children, and this relationship is not mediated by maternal obesity. In contrast to previous reports, this study included only Mexican Americans; thus, ethnic variations may influence the contributions of maternal GDM and maternal obesity to offspring adiposity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. Electronic address: kpage@usc.edu.
authors.forename: Kathleen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Page
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Buchanan
authors.affiliation: Department of Research & Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, CA.
authors.forename: Anny H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Xiang
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016640:Diabetes, Gestational; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans; D009765:Obesity; D011247:Pregnancy