Maternal pre-pregnancy weight and early life lower respiratory tract infections in a low-income urban minority birth cohort

Maria J Gutierrez,Gustavo Nino,Xiaobin Wang,Xiumei Hong

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-88360-y

Maria J Gutierrez, Gustavo Nino + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88360-y

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Abstract

The prevalence of maternal obesity has increased dramatically with adverse consequences on infant health. Prior studies have reported associations between maternal obesity and childhood wheeze, asthma as well as lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI). However, studies examining the association of obesity with early-life LRTIs in low-income urban minority populations are still lacking. This is a critical gap because both obesity and infant respiratory morbidity are more prevalent and severe in these communities. We examined mother‐child dyads from the Boston Birth Cohort (BBC) to define the longitudinal association of maternal pre‐pregnancy BMI and LRTI in infancy, defined as the presence of bronchiolitis, bronchitis, or pneumonia during the first year of life (< 12 months of age). A total of 2,790 mother‐child dyads were included in our analyses. Infants born to pre-pregnancy obese mothers (n = 688, 25%) had 1.43 increased odds (adjOR = 1.43, 95% CI 1.08–1.88, p = 0.012) of developing LRTI during the first year of life when compared with newborns born to normal-weight mothers after adjusting by relevant LRTI risk factors. Notably, infants born to overweight mothers (n = 808, 29%) followed a similar trend (adjOR = 1.31, 95% CI 1.00–1.72, p = 0.048). Our study demonstrated that maternal pre-pregnancy obesity is an independent risk factor for the development of LRTI during infancy in a low-income urban minority birth cohort.

Highlights

The prevalence of maternal obesity has increased dramatically with adverse consequences on infant health
Over one-half of mothers included in the final analysis started the current pregnancy overweight (29%) or obese (24.7%) and the median pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) was significantly higher among mothers of infants who had lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) during infancy (p = 0.006)
The link between maternal obesity and lower respiratory tract infections in infants under one year of age was demonstrated by Rajappan et al, who described a LRTI relative risk of 1.23 among children born to obese mothers in a longitudinal birth cohort of 2,799 British infant-mother pairs[5]

Summary

Introduction

The prevalence of maternal obesity has increased dramatically with adverse consequences on infant health. Studies examining the association of obesity with early-life LRTIs in low-income urban minority populations are still lacking This is a critical gap because both obesity and infant respiratory morbidity are more prevalent and severe in these communities. This is a critical gap because both obesity and infant respiratory morbidity are more prevalent and more severe in these c ommunities[10,11,12]. Risk factors for many respiratory disorders during early childhood, including LRTI, wheezing, and subsequent development of a sthma[12,14,15]

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