Skip to main content

Risk of childhood overweight or obesity associated with excessive weight gain during pregnancy: a meta-analysis

Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics volume 289, pages 247–257 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

Several investigations have shown that the risk of childhood overweight and obesity may be associated with excessive gestational weight gain (GWG), but the study samples were limited and results were mixed; hence we conducted this meta-analysis to assess the explicit association between them and present evidence.

Methods

We searched PubMed, EMbase, Ovid, Web of knowledge and Cochrane library for relevant studies. Bibliographies from retrieved articles were also manually searched. Cohort studies that presented results by OR or RR with 95 % CI for the association of maternal excessive GWG and child overweight/obesity were included. The pooled estimates were calculated by fixed-effect model or random-effect model according to the heterogeneity.

Results

Twelve cohort studies were identified, and the combined OR of excessive GWG and childhood overweight/obesity was 1.33 (95 % CI 1.18–1.50) with evidence of heterogeneity (P = 0.000, I 2 = 71.1 %). Adjustment of maternal BMI, investigation area, age of children, research type, and omission of any single study had little effect on the pooled estimate. After eliminating the effect of publication bias by trim and fill analyses, the result still remained statistically significant (OR 1.21, 95 % CI 1.05–1.40).

Conclusions

This meta-analysis suggests that the risk of childhood overweight/obesity is significantly associated with excessive gestational weight gain.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price includes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

References

  1. Gupta N, Goel K, Shah P, Misra A (2012) Childhood obesity in developing countries: epidemiology, determinants, and prevention. Endocr Rev 33:48–70

    CAS  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Kit BK, Flegal KM (2012) Prevalence of obesity in the United States, 2009–2010. NCHS Data Brief 82:1–8

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Kessler J, Koebnick C, Smith N,Adams A (2012) Childhood obesity is associated with increased risk of most lower extremity fractures. Clin Orthop Relat Res

  4. Matijasevich A, Brion MJ, Menezes AM, Barros AJ, Santos IS et al (2011) Maternal smoking during pregnancy and offspring growth in childhood: 1993 and 2004 Pelotas cohort studies. Arch Dis Child 96:519–525

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Meng LP, Liu AL, Hu X, Zhang Q, Du SM et al (2012) Report on childhood obesity in China (10): association of sleep duration with obesity. Biomed Environ Sci 25:133–140

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Rodrigues S, Ferris AM, Perez-Escamilla R, Backstrand JR (1998) Obesity among offspring of women with type 1 diabetes. Clin Invest Med 21:258–266

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Fraser A, Tilling K, Macdonald-Wallis C, Sattar N, Brion MJ et al (2010) Association of maternal weight gain in pregnancy with offspring obesity and metabolic and vascular traits in childhood. Circulation 121:2557–2564

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Fuiano N, Rapa A, Monzani A, Pietrobelli A, Diddi G et al (2008) Prevalence and risk factors for overweight and obesity in a population of Italian schoolchildren: a longitudinal study. J Endocrinol Invest 31:979–984

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Gillman MW, Rifas-Shiman SL, Kleinman K, Oken E, Rich-Edwards JW et al (2008) Developmental origins of childhood overweight: potential public health impact. Obesity (Silver Spring) 16:1651–1656

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Jedrychowski W, Maugeri U, Kaim I, Budzyn-Mrozek D, Flak E et al (2011) Impact of excessive gestational weight gain in non-smoking mothers on body fatness in infancy and early childhood. Prospective prebirth cohort study in Cracow. J Physiol Pharmacol 62:55–64

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Li C, Goran MI, Kaur H, Nollen N, Ahluwalia JS (2007) Developmental trajectories of overweight during childhood: role of early life factors. Obesity (Silver Spring) 15:760–771

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Margerison Zilko CE, Rehkopf D, Abrams B (2010) Association of maternal gestational weight gain with short- and long-term maternal and child health outcomes. Am J Obstet Gynecol 202(574):e571–e578

    Google Scholar 

  13. Oken E, Rifas-Shiman SL, Field AE, Frazier AL, Gillman MW (2008) Maternal gestational weight gain and offspring weight in adolescence. Obstet Gynecol 112:999–1006

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Oken E, Taveras EM, Kleinman KP, Rich-Edwards JW, Gillman MW (2007) Gestational weight gain and child adiposity at age 3 years. Am J Obstet Gynecol 196(322):e321–e328

    Google Scholar 

  15. Rooney BL, Mathiason MA, Schauberger CW (2011) Predictors of obesity in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood in a birth cohort. Matern Child Health J 15:1166–1175

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Stuebe AM, Forman MR, Michels KB (2009) Maternal-recalled gestational weight gain, pre-pregnancy body mass index, and obesity in the daughter. Int J Obes (Lond) 33:743–752

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Whitaker RC (2004) Predicting preschooler obesity at birth: the role of maternal obesity in early pregnancy. Pediatrics 114:e29–e36

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Wrotniak BH, Shults J, Butts S, Stettler N (2008) Gestational weight gain and risk of overweight in the offspring at age 7 y in a multicenter, multiethnic cohort study. Am J Clin Nutr 87:1818–1824

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Nehring I, Lehmann S, von Kries R (2012) Gestational weight gain in accordance to the IOM/NRC criteria and the risk for childhood overweight: a meta-analysis. Pediatr Obes

  20. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for assessing the quality of nonrandomised studies in meta-analyses. 3rd symposium on systematic reviews: beyond the basics, 2000

  21. Barlow SE (2007) Expert committee recommendations regarding the prevention, assessment, and treatment of child and adolescent overweight and obesity: summary report. Pediatrics 120(Suppl 4):S164–S192

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Weight Gain During Pregnancy (2009) Reexamining the guidelines. National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  23. Ronksley PE, Brien SE, Turner BJ, Mukamal KJ, Ghali WA (2011) Association of alcohol consumption with selected cardiovascular disease outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ 342:d671

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Zhang J, Yu KF (1998) What’s the relative risk? A method of correcting the odds ratio in cohort studies of common outcomes. JAMA 280:1690–1691

    CAS  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Higgins JP, Thompson SG (2002) Quantifying heterogeneity in a meta-analysis. Stat Med 21:1539–1558

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  26. DerSimonian R, Laird N (1986) Meta-analysis in clinical trials. Control Clin Trials 7:177–188

    CAS  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Begg CB, Mazumdar M (1994) Operating characteristics of a rank correlation test for publication bias. Biometrics 50:1088–1101

    CAS  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Egger M, Smith GD, Schneider M, Minder C (1997) Bias in meta-analysis detected by a simple, graphical test. BMJ 315:629–634

    CAS  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Moreira P, Padez C, Mourao-Carvalhal I, Rosado V (2007) Maternal weight gain during pregnancy and overweight in Portuguese children. Int J Obes (Lond) 31:608–614

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  30. von Kries R, Ensenauer R, Beyerlein A, Amann-Gassner U, Hauner H et al (2010) Gestational weight gain and overweight in children: results from the cross-sectional German KiGGS study. Int J Pediatr Obes

  31. Beyerlein A, Nehring I, Rzehak P, Heinrich J, Muller MJ et al (2012) Gestational weight gain and body mass index in children: results from three german cohort studies. PLoS One 7:e33205

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Plachta-Danielzik S, Kehden B, Landsberg B, Schaffrath Rosario A, Kurth BM et al (2012) Attributable risks for childhood overweight: evidence for limited effectiveness of prevention. Pediatrics 130:e865–e871

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Taylor S, Tweedie R (1998) Practical estimates of the effect of publication bias in meta-analysis. Australas Epidemiol 5:14–17

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Whitaker RC, Dietz WH (1998) Role of the prenatal environment in the development of obesity. J Pediatr 132:768–776

    CAS  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Stamnes Koepp UM, Frost Andersen L, Dahl-Joergensen K, Stigum H, Nass O et al (2012) Maternal pre-pregnant body mass index, maternal weight change and offspring birth-weight. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 91:243–249

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Oken E, Gillman MW (2003) Fetal origins of obesity. Obes Res 11:496–506

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Ludwig DS, Currie J (2010) The association between pregnancy weight gain and birth-weight: a within-family comparison. Lancet 376:984–990

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Okosun IS, Liao Y, Rotimi CN, Dever GE, Cooper RS (2000) Impact of birth weight on ethnic variations in subcutaneous and central adiposity in American children aged 5–11 years. A study from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 24:479–484

    CAS  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Adair LS, Cole TJ (2003) Rapid child growth raises blood pressure in adolescent boys who were thin at birth. Hypertension 41:451–456

    CAS  PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30901189) and China Effective Health Care Network.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The First College of Clinical Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, China

    Hong-Tao Tie

  2. School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, No. 1, Yixueyuan Road, Yuanjiagang, Chongqing, China

    Yi-Yin Xia, Yong Zhang & Yong Zhao

  3. The Second College of Clinical Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, China

    Yong-Sheng Zeng

  4. Health Promotion and Education Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 45221, USA

    Chia-Liang Dai

  5. Division of Pharmacy Practice and Administrative Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, 45221, OH, USA

    Jeff Jianfei Guo

Authors
  1. Hong-Tao Tie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yi-Yin Xia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yong-Sheng Zeng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yong Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Chia-Liang Dai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jeff Jianfei Guo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Yong Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yong Zhao.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tie, HT., Xia, YY., Zeng, YS. et al. Risk of childhood overweight or obesity associated with excessive weight gain during pregnancy: a meta-analysis. Arch Gynecol Obstet 289, 247–257 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-013-3053-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-013-3053-z

Keywords

  • Excessive gestational weight gain
  • Childhood overweight/obesity
  • Cohort study
  • Meta-analysis