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Pediatrics

Gestational diabetes and offspring’s growth from birth to 6 years old

International Journal of Obesity volume 43, pages 663–672 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objectives:

The objective of this study was to compare the children’s body mass index (BMI) growth between offspring exposed to maternal gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and those not exposed, and assess the associations between maternal hyperglycemia and their offspring’s overweight risk from 1 to 6 years of age.

Methods:

Using the healthcare records data from the Tianjin Maternal and Child Healthcare System, we conducted a population-based cohort study, which is composed of 27,155 mother–child pairs with all mothers undergoing GDM screening test in pregnancy.

Results:

After adjustment for maternal and children’s characteristics, children born to mothers with abnormal glucose (including GDM or abnormal glucose challenge test (GCT) but normal oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) results) during pregnancy had higher mean values of Z-scores for BMI for age at 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 years of age, in comparison with those born to mothers with normal glucose (all P values < 0.05). Moreover, maternal abnormal glucose was associated with a higher risk of childhood overweight with multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios of 1.07 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01–1.14), 1.09 (95% CI 1.04–1.15), 1.10 (95% CI 1.04–1.15), 1.08 (95% CI 1.03–1.14), 1.08 (95% 1.03–1.13), and 1.07 (95% 1.02–1.12) at 1–6 years of age compared with children of mothers with normal glucose.

Conclusions:

Abnormal maternal glucose tolerance during pregnancy was independently associated with children’s higher BMI and overweight risk from 1 to 6 years of age. Women with positive GCT results but negative OGTT can be neglected by the health system. More attention should be paid to the health of these mothers and their offspring.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Project of The National Key Research and Develpment Program of China (2016YFC1300101), and Tianjin Women’s and Children’s Health Center. GH was supported by grants from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01 DK100790) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U54 GM104940) of the National Institutes of Health. CZ is supported by the intramural research program of Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health. We would like to appreciate all the hard-working people from Tianjin Women’s and Children’s Health Center, the district-level Women’s and Children’s Health Centers, the community health centers, and preschool dedicating to the Tianjin Maternal and Child Healthcare System.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Women’s and Children’s Health Center, Tianjin, 300070, China

    Jing Wang, Lei Pan, Enqing Liu, Hongyan Liu, Jin Liu, Shuting Wang, Jia Guo & Nan Li

  2. Chronic Disease Epidemiology Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, 70808, USA

    Jing Wang & Gang Hu

  3. Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20852, USA

    Cuilin Zhang

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  1. Jing Wang
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Correspondence to Gang Hu.

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Wang, J., Pan, L., Liu, E. et al. Gestational diabetes and offspring’s growth from birth to 6 years old. Int J Obes 43, 663–672 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-018-0193-z

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