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Parental smoking during pregnancy and risk of overweight and obesity in the daughter

International Journal of Obesity volume 37, pages 1356–1363 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective:

Emerging evidence suggests that prenatal exposures may affect long-term health outcomes. In utero exposure to smoking is associated with an increased risk of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. However, few studies have examined how prenatal exposure to parental smoking influences the risk of obesity during adulthood and whether these associations are independent of childhood and adolescent adiposity. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether prenatal exposure to parental smoking influences body size during adulthood and whether any association may be mediated by childhood and adolescent body size.

Methods:

We investigated the association between parental smoking during pregnancy and the risk of being overweight and obese during adulthood and at age 18 and adiposity during childhood among 35 370 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study II. Data on smoking during pregnancy and socioeconomic variables were provided by the mothers, and anthropometric data and adult risk factors were reported by participants.

Results:

After adjustment for socioeconomic and behavioral variables, maternal smoking during pregnancy was associated with adiposity at ages 5–10, 18 and during adulthood. For age 18 overweight, the odd ratios, ORs (95% confidence intervals, CIs) for 1–14, 15–24 and 25+cigarettes per day were 1.13 (1.18–1.50), 1.40 (1.20–1.64) and 1.15 (0.79–1.69), and for obesity were 1.41 (1.14–1.75), 1.69 (1.31–2.18) and 2.36 (1.44–3.86). The corresponding ORs (95% CIs) for obesity during adulthood were 1.26 (1.16–1.37), 1.46 (1.30–1.63) and 1.43 (1.10–1.86). Risk of adiposity was not increased among daughters whose mothers stopped smoking during the first trimester (OR (95% CI) for overweight (1.03 (95% CI 0.90–1.17)) and for obesity (1.12 (95% CI 0.97–1.30)). Women whose fathers smoked during pregnancy were also at an increased risk of being overweight and obese during adulthood with covariate-adjusted ORs (95% CIs) for obesity of 1.19 (1.11–1.29) for 1–14 cigarettes per day, 1.27 (1.18–1.37) for 15–24 cigarettes per day and 1.40 (1.27–1.54) for 25+ cigarettes per day compared with fathers who did not smoke (Ptrend<0.0001). Paternal smoking during pregnancy was also associated with an increased risk of obesity at age 18 among those whose fathers smoked 15 or more cigarettes per day but was not associated with childhood body size.

Conclusions:

Maternal smoking during pregnancy was associated in a dose-response manner with overweight and obesity in the daughter across adolescence and adult life. Smoking cessation during the first trimester appears to mitigate this excess risk.

Paternal smoking was also associated with the risk of being overweight and obese of the adult daughter and this association persisted after adjustment for maternal smoking.

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Acknowledgements

The Nurses’ Health Study II is supported by Public Health Service grant CA50385 from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services. The Nurses’ Mothers’ Cohort Study was funded by the Intramural Research Program of the National Cancer Institute research contract N02-RC-17027 and by PO 263 MQ 411027 from the National Cancer Institute. HRH was supported by the NIH training grant T32 ES007069 and MCHB grant number 5T76MC00001 (formerly MCJ201). The funders have no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology Epidemiology Center, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    H R Harris & K B Michels

  2. Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, The National Institute for Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    H R Harris

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    W C Willett & K B Michels

  4. Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    W C Willett

  5. Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    W C Willett & K B Michels

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Correspondence to H R Harris.

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Harris, H., Willett, W. & Michels, K. Parental smoking during pregnancy and risk of overweight and obesity in the daughter. Int J Obes 37, 1356–1363 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2013.101

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