title: Maternal Anthropometry and Mammographic Density in Adult Daughters.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined the relation between maternal anthropometry and mammographic density in the adult daughter using prospectively collected data.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our study included a total of 700 mother-daughter dyads participating in an adult follow-up of women born in 2 US birth cohorts: the Child Health and Development Study and the Boston, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island sites of the National Collaborative Perinatal Project.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We observed an increased percent breast density at a mean age of 43.1 years in the daughters of mothers who gained 5 kg or less during pregnancy compared with mother-daughter pairs in which the mother gained 5 to 10 kg (β = 4.8, 95% confidence interval: 1.0 to 8.6). The daughters of mothers who were overweight at the time of conception (prepregnancy BMI ≥25) and who gained >5 kg during pregnancy had a lower percent density (β = -3.2, 95% confidence interval: -6.2 to -0.2) compared with mothers with a BMI <25 at conception who gained >5 kg.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We did not find any strong and consistent patterns between maternal anthropometry and the daughter's breast density, a strong predictor of breast cancer risk. A modest association between low gestational weight gain and increased breast density 40 years later in the daughter was observed, even after accounting for adult body size, and if confirmed, possible mechanisms need to be further elucidated.
authors.affiliation: Obstetrics and Gynecology Epidemiology Center, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; kmichels@bwh.harvard.edu.|Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.|Institute for Prevention and Cancer Epidemiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Karin B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Michels
authors.affiliation: The Center for Research on Women and Children's Health, The Child Health and Development Studies, Public Health Institute, Berkeley, California.
authors.forename: Barbara A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Cohn
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, and.
authors.forename: Mandy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goldberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, and.
authors.forename: Julie D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Flom
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Marcelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dougan
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, and.|The Imprints Center for Genetic and Environmental Lifecourse Studies, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York; and.|Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Mary Beth
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Terry
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D032721:Adult Children; D000886:Anthropometry; D000071060:Breast Density; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008327:Mammography; D009035:Mothers; D050177:Overweight; D011247:Pregnancy; D012307:Risk Factors; D015430:Weight Gain