Abstract
Excessive body fat at birth is a risk factor for the development of childhood obesity. The aim of the present systematic review with meta-analysis was to evaluate the effect of lifestyle interventions in pregnant women with overweight or obesity on neonatal adiposity. The PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, and LILACS databases were used as information sources. Original articles from randomized clinical trials of lifestyle intervention studies on pregnant women with excessive body weight and the effect on neonatal adiposity were considered eligible. The risk of bias was assessed using Cochrane criteria. The meta-analysis was calculated using the inverse variance for continuous data expressed as mean difference (MD), using the random effect model with a 95% confidence interval (CI). The outcomes were submitted to the GRADE evaluation. Of 2877 studies, four were included in the qualitative and quantitative synthesis (n = 1494). All studies were conducted in developed countries, with three including pregnant women with overweight or obesity, and one only pregnant women with obesity. The interventions had no effect on neonatal adiposity [Heterogeneity = 56%, MD = −0.21, CI = (−0.92, 0.50)] with low confidence in the evidence, according to GRADE. Studies are needed in low- and medium-developed countries with different ethnic-racial populations. PROSPERO (CRD42020152489).
Highlights
The prevalence of childhood obesity is characterized as a pandemic and constitutes one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century [1]
This review aimed to assess the effect of lifestyle interventions in pregnant women with overweight or obesity on neonatal adiposity
The results suggest a positive effect trend, since the percentage of body adiposity was lower in the newborns in the intervention groups, the differences compared to the control groups were not significant (Figure 2)
Summary
The prevalence of childhood obesity is characterized as a pandemic and constitutes one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century [1]. In the period from 2000 to 2018, the number of children with overweight or obesity up to five years of age worldwide increased from 30.1 to 40.1 million, an increase of 33.2% in the period [2,3]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 340 million children and adolescents aged 5–19 years were overweight in 2016 [4]. Increasing trends in child overweight are taking place in most world regions, in high-income countries, where prevalence is the highest (15% in 2011). In Africa, the estimated prevalence of overweight in children younger than 5 years increased from 4% in 1990 to 7% in 2011 and is expected to reach 11% in 2025. The prevalence of overweight is lower in Asia (5% in 2011), but the number of affected children is higher compared with Africa (17 and 12 million, respectively). A systematic review showed that in Latin America, the prevalence of overweight in children aged 0–19 years is about 25% [5,6,7]
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