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Parental pre‐pregnancy obesity and the risk of offspring weight and body mass index change from childhood to adulthood
Author(s) -
Zalbahar N.,
Najman J.,
McIntyre H. D.,
Mamun A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
clinical obesity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1758-8111
pISSN - 1758-8103
DOI - 10.1111/cob.12200
Subject(s) - offspring , medicine , overweight , body mass index , pregnancy , obesity , demography , cohort , cohort study , obstetrics , biology , genetics , sociology
Summary The purpose of this study was to examine the association of parental pre‐pregnancy weight and body mass index ( BMI ) on offspring weight and BMI change from childhood to adulthood. We analysed BMI data from a subsample of parents ( n = 1494) from the Mater‐University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy cohort that started in the early 1980s in Brisbane, Australia: data were collected at pre‐pregnancy and then also for offspring at 5, 14 and 21‐year follow‐ups. Multiple regression for continuous outcomes and multinomial regression for categorical outcomes were performed. A total of 14.7% of offspring experienced BMI change from normal at 5 years to overweight or obese ( OW / OB ) at 14 years, 15.3% of normal at 14 years to OW / OB at 21 years and 22.8% from normal at 5 years to OW / OB at 21 years. Overall, the strength of the association of parental BMI with offspring BMI was stronger as offspring become older. Pre‐pregnancy parental BMI differentially impacts offspring OW/OB across the life course. For every unit increase in paternal and maternal BMI z ‐score, offspring BMI z ‐score increased, on average, by between 0.15% (kg m −2 ) and 0.24% (kg m −2 ) throughout all three stages of life when both parents were OW / OB ; these associations were stronger than with one parent. Parental pre‐pregnancy BMI and OW / OB is a strong predictor of offspring weight and BMI change from early life to adulthood.