Association of maternal overweight and gestational diabetes mellitus with offspring adiposity trajectory: from birth to early adolescence

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Aims/hypothesis: We aimed to examine offspring adiposity trajectories from birth to age 9–14 years and to assess the joint associations of maternal overweight and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) with these trajectories. Methods: This is a prospective cohort study with 564 mother–child dyads from the Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome study Hong Kong field centre. Assessments and anthropometric measurements were taken during pregnancy, at delivery and at median ages of 7 and 10 years postpartum. Offspring adiposity was primarily assessed using sum of skinfold thickness. We used linear mixed-effect models to evaluate the independent and joint associations of maternal overweight and GDM with the offspring adiposity trajectories, and applied group-based trajectory modelling to identify distinct patterns of adiposity development based on both statistical indices and clinical interpretability. Results: Offspring skinfold thickness trajectories varied significantly based on maternal overweight and GDM (pp=0.006) of the rapidly increasing trajectory. Linear mixed-effect model analysis showed greater increases in skinfold thickness among offspring of mothers with either condition, with the highest trajectory observed in offspring of mothers with both conditions (β 1.62; 95% CI 0.69, 2.54; p=0.001). Conclusions/interpretation: Maternal overweight and GDM are independently and jointly associated with rapidly increasing adiposity trajectories from birth to early adolescence. The findings underscore the importance of considering both maternal metabolic conditions when evaluating offspring adiposity risk. Graphical
Funding Information
  • General Research Fund of the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR, China (CUHK 14102719, CUHK 14118718, CUHK 471713, CUHK 473408)
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (grant no. R01-HD34243)
  • National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grant no. R01-HD34242)

This publication has 32 references indexed in Scilit: