Abstract
Background: Overweight in pregnancy has been linked to offspring asthma, but whether this is partly related to overweight in the mother before conception has not been reported.
Aim: To examine if mothers’ overweight in childhood, adolescence and adulthood increase the risk of overweight and asthma in her offspring.
Methods: We evaluated 3522 adult offspring (age 18-52 yrs.) of 2547 mothers (age 39-65 yrs.) from the RHINESSA generation study (10 centres in North Europe, Spain and Australia). The association of mothers' overweight assessed through self-reported body silhouette at ages 8, menarche and 30, with allergic/non-allergic asthma in offspring, was analysed using a cluster robust 2-level 2→2→1 mediation model, adjusting for overweight, asthma, smoking and education in grandparents and fathers; age, asthma, smoking and education in mothers; and overweight, sex and age in offspring.
Results: 9.5% and 7.0% of offspring reported allergic and non-allergic asthma, respectively. 21.3 % of the mothers reported overweight at age 8, 7.6% at menarche and 14.6% at age 30 (before offspring’s birth).
OR. Odds Ratio; RRR, Relative Risk Ratio
Conclusion: Mothers’ overweight starting in childhood or before menarche was associated with offspring overweight in childhood, but not with offspring asthma (Funding: H2020 EU grant No 633212).
- Copyright ©the authors 2017