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Response to ‘Maternal obesity, gestational weight gain and childhood cardiac outcome at age 6 years’

International Journal of Obesity volume 41, page 94 (2017)Cite this article

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We would like to thank Professor Kawada1 for his interest in our study concerning ‘Maternal obesity, gestational weight gain and childhood cardiac outcomes: role of childhood body mass index.’2

First, the study by Gaillard et al.3 was conducted within the Raine Study, a population-based cohort study in Perth, Australia. There was no overlap regarding data and outcomes. Similar as in our study, the effects of maternal obesity and gestational weight gain on a number of cardiovascular risk factors observed in the Raine Study, were mainly mediated by adolescent body mass index (BMI).3 On the basis of these two studies, we cannot conclude whether the associations of maternal obesity and gestational weight gain with cardio-metabolic risk change from childhood to adolescence. However, different studies have reported substantial tracking of BMI or obesity from childhood to early adulthood.4, 5 Tracking of other risk factors, such as blood pressure from childhood to young adulthood has also been reported, but to a lesser extent than tracking of obesity.6 Thus, cardio-metabolic risk seems to track from childhood onwards, but the influence of maternal obesity and gestational weight gain on this tracking is yet unknown.

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References

  1. Kawada T . Maternal obesity, gestational weight gain and childhood cardiac outcome at age 6 years. Int J Obes 2016. e-pub ahead of print 17 October 2016 doi:10.1038/ijo.2016.181.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Epidemiology and Pediatrics, From the Generation R Study Group, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    L Toemen & V W V Jaddoe

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  1. L Toemen
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  2. V W V Jaddoe
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Correspondence to V W V Jaddoe.

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Toemen, L., Jaddoe, V. Response to ‘Maternal obesity, gestational weight gain and childhood cardiac outcome at age 6 years’. Int J Obes 41, 94 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2016.182

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