Parental weight status impacts offspring's BMI differently in gender from birth to age 2 - a Chinese birth cohort

Background The obesity prevalences in China have risen markedly in both children and grownups in the past two decades and have become a critical public health concern in China. However, the influence of parental overweight and obesity on their offspring's BMI status in early life remains unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of parental overweight/obesity on offspring's BMI from birth to age 2 in Chinese population.

Methods A total of 2, 220 healthy neonates were recruited in this community-based birth cohort study in China. Data on body weight and length were collected at 7 occasions from birth to age 2, with self-administered questionnaire used to collect data, including those on social demography and feeding patterns of children. Linear mixed models were adopted to develop the age trajectories of parental-weight-specific BMI, and the comparisons were made among various parental weight groups.

Results Children with overweight or obese parent(s) tend to have higher BMI than their counterparts with normal weight parents. After adjustment for such co-variants as social-economic and demographic variables, delivery method and feeding pattern, significant independent effects of paternal and maternal pre-pregnancy weight status on children's BMI age trajectory were observed on boys only, i.e., boys of obese or overweight parents bear a higher BMI at the age of 1 to 24 months (p<0.01).

Conclusions Gender-tailored strategy should be implemented in childhood obesity prevention from early life. Increasing awareness and early interventions of overweight household could be more effective if targeted to boys.