Abstract
Objectives
A woman’s food choices during pregnancy may be associated with her offspring’s food choices. Several studies support an association between childhood sugary beverage (SB) consumption and poor cardiometabolic health. This study aimed to assess the association of maternal SB consumption during pregnancy and later, with her offspring’s SB consumption in early infancy and childhood.
Methods
A total of 1945 women and 1595 children participating in 3 Canadian studies reported SB consumption during pregnancy, at 2 years of age, and/or at school age (5 to 8 years old). Mother and offspring SB intakes were self-reported by mothers. Multivariable linear regression analyses were conducted within each cohort and cohort data were combined using fixed effect meta-analyses.
Results
Maternal SB consumption during pregnancy was associated with higher offspring SB consumption at 2 years of age (standardized β = 0.19 predicted change in the number of standard deviations of offspring SB intake for an increase of 1 standard deviation in maternal serving [95% CI: 0.16 to 0.22]). Concurrent maternal SB consumption was associated with higher offspring SB intake when children were aged 5 to 8 years (standardized β= 0.25 [95% CI: 0.10 to 0.40]).
Conclusion
Maternal SB consumption during pregnancy is associated with a marginally higher SB intake among their offspring at age 2, and concurrent maternal consumption is associated with a higher SB intake among school-aged offspring (5 to 8 years old). Future interventions tailored for pregnancy and early childrearing years to reduce SB intakes of mothers may reduce young children’s SB intake.
Résumé
Objectifs
Il peut y avoir un lien entre les choix alimentaires d’une femme pendant la grossesse et ceux de son enfant. Plusieurs études font état d’une association entre la consommation de boissons sucrées (BS) durant l’enfance et la mauvaise santé cardiométabolique. Notre étude visait à évaluer l’association entre la consommation de BS des mères pendant et après la grossesse et la consommation de BS de leurs enfants durant la petite enfance et l’enfance.
Méthode
En tout, 1 945 femmes et 1 595 enfants participant à 3 études canadiennes ont fait état de leur consommation de BS pendant la grossesse, à l’âge de 2 ans et/ou à l’âge scolaire (5 à 8 ans). La consommation de BS des mères et des enfants a été déclarée par les mères. Des analyses de régression linéaire multivariée ont été menées dans chaque cohorte, et les données des cohortes ont été combinées à l’aide de méta-analyses à effets fixes.
Résultats
La consommation maternelle de BS pendant la grossesse était associée à une consommation de BS plus élevée chez les enfants à l’âge de 2 ans (le coefficient β standardisé = 0,19 prédisait le changement du nombre d’écart-types de consommation de BS chez les enfants pour chaque hausse de 1 écart-type de la portion maternelle [IC de 95 % : 0,16 à 0,22]). La consommation maternelle concomitante de BS était associée à une consommation de BS plus élevée chez les enfants lorsqu’ils étaient âgés de 5 à 8 ans (coefficient β standardisé = 0,25 [IC de 95 % : 0,10 à 0,40]).
Conclusion
La consommation maternelle de BS pendant la grossesse est associée à une consommation de BS marginalement plus élevée chez l’enfant à l’âge de 2 ans, et la consommation maternelle concomitante est associée à une consommation de BS plus élevée chez l’enfant d’âge scolaire (5 à 8 ans). De futures interventions visant à réduire la consommation de BS des mères pendant la grossesse et durant les premières années où elles élèvent leurs enfants pourraient réduire la consommation de BS des jeunes enfants.
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Data collection forms and other raw data can be shared upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the investigators from the START, RICH LEGACY, and FAMILY studies who raised funds and established the cohorts included in this analysis.
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Dr. Anand is supported by a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Ethnicity and Cardiovascular Disease, and the Michael G. DeGroote Heart and Stroke Foundation Chair in Population Health. The South Asian Birth Cohort (START) study data were collected as part of a bilateral program funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research/Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. The FAMILY study is funded by grants from the CIHR and Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario with supplementary grants from the Population Health Research Institute. The RICH LEGACY study is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FRN 227861) (ZP).
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SSA and JL designed the research. JL conducted the research. JL and RJdS analyzed the data and performed statistical analyses. JL wrote the manuscript. SSA had primary responsibility for final content. All listed authors contributed to data collection and have read, edited, and approved the final manuscript.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutions (START study: Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board [ID:10-640], William Osler Health System [ID:11-0001], and Trillium Health Partners [RCC: 11-018, ID: 492], March 3rd, 2011; FAMILY study: Hamilton Health Sciences [02-060], and St. Joseph’s Health Centre [05-2497]; RICH LEGACY study: The Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board [10-659]) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.
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RJ de Souza has served as an external resource person to the World Health Organization’s Nutrition Guidelines Advisory Group on trans fats, saturated fats, and polyunsaturated fats. WHO paid for his travel and accommodation to attend meetings from the period 2012-2017 to present and discuss this work. He has presented updates of this work to WHO in 2022. He has also done contract research for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s (CIHR) Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism, and Diabetes, Health Canada, and WHO for which he received remuneration. He has received speaker’s fees from the University of Toronto, and McMaster Children’s Hospital. He has held grants from CIHR, Canadian Foundation for Dietetic Research, Population Health Research Institute, and Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation as a principal investigator, and is a co-investigator on several funded team grants from CIHR. He has served as an independent director of the Helderleigh Foundation (Canada). He serves as a member of the Nutrition Science Advisory Committee to Health Canada (Government of Canada), and a co-opted member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) Subgroup on the Framework for the Evaluation of Evidence (Public Health England).
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Limbachia, J., Desai, D., Abdalla, N. et al. The association of maternal sugary beverage consumption during pregnancy and the early years with childhood sugary beverage consumption. Can J Public Health 114, 231–240 (2023). https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-022-00681-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-022-00681-1
Keywords
- Sugar-sweetened beverages
- Child nutritional physiological phenomena
- Maternal nutritional physiological phenomena
- Diet
- Asians