Glucose Intolerance in Pregnancy and Offspring Obesity in Late Adolescence

Abstract

<b>Objective</b>: Gestational hyperglycemia is associated with deleterious neonatal outcomes, but long-term risks for offspring obesity are less clear. We estimated the odds for offspring adolescent overweight and obesity among mothers with gestational glucose intolerance.<b></b> <p><b>Research Design and Methods</b>: In a mother-offspring, historical cohort, the Israel military conscription dataset was linked to a large health maintenance organization. Included were women who were evaluated at adolescence and performed two-step gestational diabetes screening (mean age, 31 years) with a 50-g glucose challenge test (GCT), followed by a 100-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) if abnormal. Glucose tolerance categories included gestational normoglycemia, abnormal GCT with normal OGTT, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT; one abnormal OGTT value), and gestational diabetes. The primary outcome was offspring overweight/obesity (BMI≥85<sup>th</sup> percentile) at adolescence, measured prior to military conscription. Logistic regression models were applied.<b> </b></p> <p><b>Results</b>: Of 33,482 mother-offspring pairs, overweight and obesity were observed in 6,516 offspring. Across increasing categories of pregnancy glycemia, the proportions of offspring with adolescent overweight/obesity increased: normoglycemia, 19%; abnormal GCT with normal OGTT, 22%; gestational IGT, 24%; and gestational diabetes, 25%, <i>P</i><0.0001. Corresponding odds ratios after adjustment for mother’s late-adolescent characteristics (sociodemographic confounders and BMI) and pregnancy age were 1.2 (95%CI, 1.1-1.4), 1.3 (1.2-1.5), and 1.4 (1.3-1.6), respectively. Further adjustment for offspring birth weight percentile and sociodemographic variables did not materially change results. Associations were more pronounced with increasing obesity severity.</p> <b>Conclusions</b>: Gestational glucose intolerance, including categories not meeting the gestational diabetes threshold, were associated with increased odds for offspring overweight/obesity at late adolescence.