Abstract
We studied the associations of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index and gestational weight gain with risks of preschool wheezing in offspring and explored the role of growth, infectious and atopic mechanisms.
This substudy of 4656 children was embedded in a population-based birth cohort. Information about maternal pre-pregnancy weight, gestational weight gain and wheezing at the ages of 1–4 years was obtained by either physical measurements or questionnaires.
Among mothers with a history of asthma or atopy, maternal pre-pregnancy obesity was associated with an overall increased risk of preschool wheezing (odds ratio 1.47, 95% confidence interval 1.12–1.95). Also, each standard deviation increase of gestational weight gain was associated with an increased overall risk of preschool wheezing (1.09, 1.04–1.14), was independent of pre-pregnancy body mass index and was not different between mothers with and without a history of asthma or atopy. Child’s growth, respiratory tract infections or eczema did not alter the results.
Mothers with pre-pregnancy obesity and a history of asthma or atopy, and mothers with higher gestational weight gain showed higher risks of wheezing in their offspring. These associations could not be explained by growth, infectious or atopic mechanisms. Further research is needed to identify underlying mechanisms and long-term consequences.
Abstract
Pre-pregnancy obesity associated with increased risk of wheezing in offspring, if mothers have history of asthma or atopy http://ow.ly/nDG1u
Footnotes
This article has supplementary material available from www.erj.ersjournals.com
Support statement: The general design of the Generation R Study was made possible by financial support from the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development. V. Jaddoe received an additional grant from the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw 90700303, 916.10159). L. Duijts is the recipient of a European Respiratory Society/Marie Curie Joint Research Fellowship (number MC 1226-2009). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Respiratory Society and the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007–2013 - Marie Curie Actions under grant agreement RESPIRE, PCOFUND-GA-2008-229571 and from the seventh framework programme, project CHICOS (HEALTH-F2-2009-241504).
Conflict of interest: Disclosures can be found alongside the online version of this article at www.erj.ersjournals.com
- Received September 18, 2012.
- Accepted February 14, 2013.
- ©ERS 2013