185518 Effect of maternal gestational weight gain on child adiposity at age 5: Evidence from a 1960's cohort

Monday, October 27, 2008: 10:50 AM

Claire E. Margerison, MPH , School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Bina Shrimali, MPH , 3642 20th Street, Alameda County Public Health Department, Berkeley, CA
Brenda Eskenazi, PhD , School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Maureen Lahiff, PhD , School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Barbara Abrams, DrPh, RD , School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
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.

Learning Objectives:
1.Recognize the association between maternal gestational weight gain and child adiposity at age 5. 2.Discuss the 1990 IOM guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy in light of these findings.

Keywords: Obesity, Reproductive Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: training in biostatistics and epidemiology; subject matter knowledge in reproductive epidemiology and childhood overweight; work with senior professors and statisticians at UC Berkeley
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.