Effect of maternal gestational weight gain on child adiposity at age 5: Evidence from a 1960's cohort

BACKGROUND: Currently, many women gain above the recommended weight during pregnancy, and effects on later child adiposity are unknown. We examined whether maternal gestational weight gain was associated with increased child BMI percentile at age 5 in a cohort of children born between 1959 and 1967, when maternal gestational gain and prevalence of child overweight were lower than today.

METHODS: We used 3010 mother-child pairs from the Child Health and Development Studies (Oakland, California) to examine the effect of maternal gestational weight gain (kilograms) on child BMI percentile (for age and gender) using multivariable linear regression and multinomial logistic regression, adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics, parental BMI, smoking, gestation length and child sex.

RESULTS: There was a modest but significant positive association between maternal gestational weight gain and child BMI percentile at age 5 (0.65 % change per 1 kg maternal gain [0.37, 0.92]). Excessive versus inadequate maternal weight gain (as defined by 1990 IOM guidelines) was associated with increased odds of child BMI in the 85-94th versus <50th percentile (1.80 [1.25, 2.61]), but there was no association between weight gain and child BMI ≥95th percentile or for adequate versus inadequate weight gain.

IMPLICATIONS: These data, from a cohort of children born prior to the current obesity epidemic, indicate a positive, but modest, association between maternal gestational weight gain and child BMI percentile at age 5 but do not demonstrate that gain within or above IOM guidelines increases risk of child overweight.