Gestational Weight Gain and Body Mass Index in Children: Results from Three German Cohort Studies

Andreas Beyerlein,Manfred J Müller,Melanie Weck,Ina Nehring,Sandra Plachta-Danielzik,Dietrich Rothenbacher,Martin Wabitsch,Peter Rzehak,Hermann Brenner,Joachim Heinrich,Rüdiger Von Kries,Virginia J Vitzthum

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033205

Abstract

IntroductionPrevious studies suggested potential priming effects of gestational weight gain (GWG) on offspring’s body composition in later life. However, consistency of these effects in normal weight, overweight and obese mothers is less clear.MethodsWe combined the individual data of three German cohorts and assessed associations of total and excessive GWG (as defined by criteria of the Institute of Medicine) with offspring’s mean body mass index (BMI) standard deviation scores (SDS) and overweight at the age of 5–6 years (total: n = 6,254). Quantile regression was used to examine potentially different effects on different parts of the BMI SDS distribution. All models were adjusted for birth weight, maternal age and maternal smoking during pregnancy and stratified by maternal pre-pregnancy weight status.ResultsIn adjusted models, positive associations of total and excessive GWG with mean BMI SDS and overweight were observed only in children of non- overweight mothers. For example, excessive GWG was associated with a mean increase of 0.08 (95% CI: 0.01, 0.15) units of BMI SDS (0.13 (0.02, 0.24) kg/m2 of ‘real’ BMI) in children of normal-weight mothers. The effects of total and excessive GWG on BMI SDS increased for higher- BMI children of normal-weight mothers.DiscussionIncreased GWG is likely to be associated with overweight in offspring of non-overweight mothers.

Highlights

Previous studies suggested potential priming effects of gestational weight gain (GWG) on offspring’s body composition in later life
The mean age of the children analysed at the time of examination was 5.9 years with a standard deviation (SD) of 0.6 years
One unit of body mass index (BMI) standard deviation scores (SDS) corresponded with about 1.6 kg/m2 of ‘real’ BMI

Summary

Introduction

Previous studies suggested potential priming effects of gestational weight gain (GWG) on offspring’s body composition in later life Consistency of these effects in normal weight, overweight and obese mothers is less clear. Excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) is known to be associated with unfavourable pregnancy outcomes such as preeclampsia, macrosomia and emergency caesarean delivery (1–5), whereas insufficient GWG appears to be a risk factor for a number of adverse pregnancy outcomes such as small for gestational age births [1,2] Both short- and long- term maternal post-partum weight retention are associated with high GWG [3,4,5,6,7]. While significant associations between high GWG and offspring’s obesity were observed in normal-weight mothers, similar trends did not consistently reach significance for offspring of mothers in other weight categories [10,12,13,14]

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion