Abstract
Background: Our previous study suggests fathers’ but not mothers’ onset of overweight in prepuberty increased adult asthma in future offspring (Johannessen A, JACI 2020). Potential impact on offspring’s adult lung function, and mediation through offspring overweight or height, are not known.
Objective: We studied two-generation causal associations to estimate the causal effects of parents’ overweight in specific time windows on offspring’s adult lung function.
Methods: We included 929 adult offspring (age, 18-54 years, 54% daughters) of 308 fathers and 388 mothers (age, 40-66 years). Counterfactual-based mediation models with offspring’s sex as a potential moderator were used to assess the direct and indirect (mediated through offspring’s overweight and/or adult height) effects of parents’ overweight on offspring’s lung function (pre-bronchodilator FEV1, FVC and FEV1/FVC) in adulthood, within the paternal and maternal lines.
Results: Fathers’ overweight before puberty had a negative direct effect on sons’ FVC [beta(95%CI): -251 (-478, -19) mL], and a negative indirect effect, mediated through sons’ height, on sons’ FEV1 [beta (95%CI): -148 (-281, -54) mL] and FVC [-213 (-384, -79) mL]. The effects were not mediated through offspring’s own overweight. No direct and indirect effects were found on FEV1 or FVC in daughters or within the maternal line.
Conclusion: Fathers’ overweight starting before puberty appears to cause lower FEV1 and FVC in their future sons, partly due to reduced adult height in the sons. The effects were not mediated through sons’ overweight. This was only found in the male line, from father to son.
Footnotes
Cite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2021; 58: Suppl. 65, OA1320.
This abstract was presented at the 2021 ERS International Congress, in session “Prediction of exacerbations in patients with COPD”.
This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).
- Copyright ©the authors 2021