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The associations between maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index or gestational weight change during pregnancy and body mass index of the child at 3 years of age

International Journal of Obesity volume 36, pages 1325–1331 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective:

To estimate the associations between maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) or gestational weight change (GWC) during pregnancy and offspring BMI at 3 years of age, while taking several pre-and postnatal factors into account.

Design:

The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study is a population-based pregnancy cohort study of women recruited from all geographical areas of Norway.

Subjects:

The study includes 31 169 women enrolled between 2000 and 2009 through a postal invitation sent to women at 17–18 weeks of gestation. Data collected from 5898 of the fathers were included.

Main outcome mesures:

Offspring BMI at 3 years was the main outcome measured in this study.

Results:

Mean maternal pre-pregnancy BMI was 24.0 kg m−2 (s.d. 4.1), mean GWC in the first 30 weeks of gestation was 9.0 kg (s.d. 4.1) and mean offspring BMI at 3 years of age was 16.1 kg m−2 (s.d. 1.5). Both maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and GWC were positively associated with mean offspring BMI at 3 years of age. Pre-pregnancy BMI and GWC also interacted, and the strength of the interaction between these two factors was strongly associated with the increase in offspring BMI among mothers who gained the most weight during pregnancy and had the highest pre-pregnancy BMI. Our findings show that results could be biased by not including pre-pregnant paternal BMI.

Conclusion(s):

This large population-based study showed that both maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and GWC were positively associated with mean offspring BMI at 3 years of age.

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Acknowledgements

The provision of questionnaire data by the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study are gratefully appreciated. We thank M Mattingsdal for preparing Figure 2. The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Health, NIH/NIEHS (Grant no. NO1-ES-85433), NIH/NINDS (Grant no. 1 UO1 NS 047537-01) and the Norwegian Research Council/ FUGE (Grant no. 151918/S10). We are grateful to all participating families in Norway who take part in this ongoing cohort study. In addition, this study was supported by a research grant from South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority and Sorlandet Hospital HF. The authors work was independent of these funding sources.

Details of ethics approval

MoBa has been approved by the Norwegian Regional Committee for Ethics in Medical Research and the Data Inspectorate. Informed consent was obtained from each participant before inclusion. The approval from the Data Inspectorate was obtained in September (2003-ref 01/4325)

Author contributions

All authors have contributed substantially to this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paediatrics, Sørlandet Hospital HF, Kristiansand, Norway

    U M Stamnes Køpp

  2. Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    K Dahl-Jørgensen

  3. Department of Paediatrics, Ullevaal, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

    K Dahl-Jørgensen

  4. Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway

    H Stigum, Ø Næss & W Nystad

  5. Department of Nutrition, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    L Frost Andersen

  6. Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Ø Næss

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  1. U M Stamnes Køpp
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Correspondence to U M Stamnes Køpp.

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Stamnes Køpp, U., Dahl-Jørgensen, K., Stigum, H. et al. The associations between maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index or gestational weight change during pregnancy and body mass index of the child at 3 years of age. Int J Obes 36, 1325–1331 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2012.140

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