Abstract
Background:Few studies have investigated whether parental adiposity is associated with offspring cardiovascular health or the underlying pathways. Studying these associations may help to illuminate the paradox of increasing prevalence of obesity and declining trends in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, which may be partially explained by beneficial adaptations to an obesogenic environment among people exposed to such environments from younger ages.Objective:To investigate associations between parental body mass index (BMI) and risk factors for CVD among their offspring in mid-life and to test whether associations of offspring BMI with CVD risk factors were modified by parental BMI.Methods:Data from parents and offspring in the 1958 British birth cohort were used (N=9328). Parental BMI was assessed when offspring were aged 11 years; offspring BMI, waist circumference and CVD risk factors (lipid levels, blood pressure, glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and inflammatory and haemostatic markers) were measured at 44–45 years.Results:Higher parental BMI was associated with less favourable levels of offspring risk factors for CVD. Most associations were maintained after adjustment for offspring lifestyle and socioeconomic factors but were largely abolished or reversed after adjustment for offspring adiposity. For some CVD risk factors, there was evidence of effect modification; the association between higher BMI and an adverse lipid profile among offspring was weaker if maternal BMI had been higher. Conversely, offspring BMI was more strongly associated with HbA1c if parental BMI had been higher.Conclusions:Intergenerational influences may be important in conferring the effect of high BMI on CVD risk among offspring.
Highlights
Associations between parental and offspring adiposity have consistently been shown with recent evidence demonstrating that these associations persist into mid-adulthood,[1,2] when risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) are reaching clinically significant levels and symptoms of CVD are beginning to manifest in an increasing proportion of the population
In models adjusted for maternal age and offspring gender, higher maternal body mass index (BMI) was associated with lower levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol and higher levels of all other outcome measures among offspring at age 44–45 years with the exception of total and Low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol where no association was seen (Figure 1)
The strongest association was between maternal BMI and C-reactive protein (CRP); per 1 kg m–2 increase in maternal BMI, CRP was higher by 3.8% (95% confidence interval) 3.1–4.5) after adjustment for gender and maternal age
Summary
Associations between parental and offspring adiposity have consistently been shown with recent evidence demonstrating that these associations persist into mid-adulthood,[1,2] when risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) are reaching clinically significant levels and symptoms of CVD are beginning to manifest in an increasing proportion of the population. Exploring the intergenerational associations between parental adiposity and offspring CVD risk may help to illuminate the paradox of increasing prevalence of obesity and declining trends in CVD mortality.[14] Despite increases in average body mass index (BMI) and prevalence of obesity,[15] CVD mortality rates and population levels of related risk factors such as blood pressure (BP) and cholesterol have declined over the same time period.[15,16,17,18,19,20]. Few studies have investigated whether parental adiposity is associated with offspring cardiovascular health or the underlying pathways Studying these associations may help to illuminate the paradox of increasing prevalence of obesity and declining trends in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, which may be partially explained by beneficial adaptations to an obesogenic environment among people exposed to such environments from younger ages. CONCLUSIONS: Intergenerational influences may be important in conferring the effect of high BMI on CVD risk among offspring
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