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Maternal pre-pregnancy underweight is associated with underweight and low bone mass in school-aged children

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Abstract

Introduction

A number of studies have reported that pre-pregnancy overweight status is associated with offspring obesity, yet only a few studies have examined pre-pregnancy underweight status as it associates with offspring health. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of pre-pregnancy underweight status in a mother on health outcomes in her offspring. To this end, the primary outcome examined in the present study was underweight status in the offspring, with a secondary outcome of offspring low bone mass.

Materials and methods

The present retrospective cohort study, conducted from 2008 to 2011, targeted a source population of all students registered as fifth-graders at three public elementary schools in Hamamatsu and Fukuroi cities. Maternal height and weight before and after pregnancy and offspring weight and height at birth were obtained from the Maternal and Child Health Handbook. Offspring weight and height at age 10 years were measured using standard procedures. Offspring total body less head (TBLH) bone mineral content (BMC) was determined with a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scanner.

Results

Pre-pregnancy underweight status was found to be associated with an increased risk of an underweight status in female offspring (OR = 2.88, 95% CI 1.06–7.81). Offspring TBLH BMC in the underweight mother group was significantly lower than that in the non-underweight mother group.

Conclusions

We determined that pre-pregnancy underweight status was more likely to lead to an underweight status and low TBLH BMC in school-aged offspring.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the teaching staff of Aritama Elementary School, Sekishi Elementary School, and Fukuroikita Elementary School, and Dr. Toshiko Okamoto for their support. This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI Grant Numbers 19657077, 21657068, 22370092, and 21657068) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, Kindai University Faculty of Medicine, 377-2 Oono-Higashi, Osaka-Sayama, Osaka, 589-8511, Japan

    Yuki Fujita, Kumiko Ohara & Masayuki Iki

  2. Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Kansai Medical University, Hirakata, Osaka, 573-1010, Japan

    Katsuyasu Kouda

  3. Department of Health Promotion and Education, Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan

    Harunobu Nakamura

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  1. Yuki Fujita
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  3. Kumiko Ohara
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  4. Harunobu Nakamura
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  5. Masayuki Iki
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the conception and design of the study. Material preparation and data collection and analysis were performed by YF, KK, and KO. The first draft of the manuscript was written by YF, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuki Fujita.

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All authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical approval

The study was conducted in compliance with ethical standards. The Ethics Committee of the Kindai University Faculty of Medicine approved the present study.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants and the parent or guardian of each participant included in the study.

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Fujita, Y., Kouda, K., Ohara, K. et al. Maternal pre-pregnancy underweight is associated with underweight and low bone mass in school-aged children. J Bone Miner Metab 38, 878–884 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-020-01121-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-020-01121-1

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