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Associations of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Excessive Gestational Weight Gain with Offspring Obesity Risk

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Abstract

Objective

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and gestational weight gain (GWG) are important risk factors that are known to affect offspring growth, but these outcomes are inconsistent and it remains unknown if both risk factors have a synergetic effect on early childhood growth. The present study aimed to conduct offspring body mass index-for-age Z-scores (BMIZ) trajectories and to evaluate the independent and interactive effect of the status of GDM and excessive GWG on the risks of overweight/obesity from birth to 24 months of age.

Methods

A total of 7949 mother-child pairs were enrolled in this study. The weight and length of children were measured at birth, 6, 12, and 24 months of age to calculate BMIZ.

Results

The status of GDM was positively associated with offspring BMIZ and risk of macrosomia at birth but was not associated with offspring BMIZ or the risks of overweight/obesity at 6, 12, and 24 months of age. In contrast, excessive GWG was positively linked to offspring BMIZ, the stable high BMIZ trajectory pattern, and risks of overweight/obesity in the first 24 months of age. These two risk factors also had a significant synergistic effect on macrosomia at birth, but the interactive effect was only significant in boys during the follow-up years in the sex-stratified analyses.

Conclusion

The maternal GWG was a more pronounced predictor than GDM with relation to BMIZ and risk of overweight/obesity in early childhood. The interactive effect between these risk factors on offspring overweight/obesity may vary by sex.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the children and their parents who participated in this study for their time and commitments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Environmental Protection, and State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Qi Liu, Wei Xia, Xin Xiong, Ju-xiao Li, Ying Li, Shun-qing Xu & Yuan-yuan Li

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  1. Qi Liu
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  2. Wei Xia
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  3. Xin Xiong
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  4. Ju-xiao Li
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  5. Ying Li
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  7. Yuan-yuan Li
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Correspondence to Wei Xia.

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Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Author Shun-qing XU is a member of the Editorial Board for Current Medical Science. The paper was handled by the other editor and has undergone rigorous peer review process. Author Shun-qing XU was not involved in the journal’s review of, or decision related to, this manuscript.

This work was supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2015ZDTD047, No. 2016YXZD043 and No. 2018KFYXMPT00), Program for HUST Academic Frontier Youth Team (No. 2018QYTD12) and Grants from the National Key Research and Development Plan (No. 2016YFC0206203).

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Liu, Q., Xia, W., Xiong, X. et al. Associations of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Excessive Gestational Weight Gain with Offspring Obesity Risk. CURR MED SCI 42, 520–529 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-022-2547-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-022-2547-y

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