Mother's pre-pregnancy BMI is an important determinant of adverse cardiometabolic risk in childhood

Abstract

Objective: Maternal adiposity is associated with poor offspring cardiometabolic health. We aimed to evaluate the relationship of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) on the BMI, body composition and cardiometabolic characteristics of the offspring.

Methods: Forty offspring of overweight/obese mothers (O-OW) and 28 offspring of normal weight mothers (O-NW) underwent evaluation of body composition, abdominal fat distribution, blood pressure measurement, fasting lipids and an oral glucose tolerance test. The anthropometric and cardiometabolic characteristics of O-OW were compared with those of O-NW, and the relationship to maternal BMI was evaluated.

Results: Subjects (mean age: 12.6 ± 0.4, female: 52.9%) had similar gestational age, birth weight, age, gender, and Tanner stage. However, O-OW had a significantly higher BMI (24.4 ± 1.2 vs. 19.7 ± 0.8 kg/m(2) , p = 0.001), % body fat (31.7 ± 1.6 vs. 24.6 ± 1.1%, p < 0.001), visceral fat (41.9 ± 4.7 vs. 26.1 ± 3.9 cm(2) , p = 0.012) with no difference in lean body mass compared with O-NW. O-OW had lower whole body insulin sensitivity index (WBISI) with an adverse cardiovascular disease risk profile [higher blood pressure (BP), triglycerides to high-density lipoprotein (HDL) ratio, hs-C-reactive protein (CRP) and lower HDL]. In addition to offspring's %body fat (β = -0.60, p < 0.001), maternal pre-pregnancy BMI (β = -0.19, p = 0.046) contributed significantly and independently to the offspring's WBISI (R(2) =0.55, p < 0.001).

Conclusions: High pre-pregnancy BMI is an important contributor to excess adiposity, insulin resistance, and cardiometabolic disease risk in the offspring during childhood.

Keywords: cardiometabolic risk; early childhood risk factors of metabolic disease; in utero programming; insulin resistance; maternal obesity.