Abstract
Background/Objectives
With rising obesity rates among pregnant women, more children are exposed in utero to maternal obesity. In prior epidemiological studies, exposure to maternal obesity was associated with lower intelligence quotient (IQ) scores and worse cognitive abilities in offspring. Further studies have shown that offspring exposed to maternal obesity, exhibit differences in the white matter microstructure properties, fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD). In contrast, physical activity was shown to improve cognition and white matter microstructure during childhood. We examined if child physical activity levels modify the relationship between prenatal exposure to maternal obesity with IQ and white matter microstructure in offspring.
Subjects/Methods
One hundred children (59% girls) age 7–11 years underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging and IQ testing. Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI was abstracted from electronic medical records. White matter was assessed using diffusion tensor imaging with the measures, global FA, MD. The 3-day physical activity recall was used to measure moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and vigorous physical activity (VPA). Linear regression was used to test for interactions between prenatal exposure to maternal overweight/obesity and child PA levels on child IQ and global FA/MD.
Results
The relationship between prenatal exposure to maternal overweight/obesity and child IQ and global FA varied by child VPA levels. Children exposed to mothers with overweight/obesity who engaged in more VPA had higher IQ scores and global FA compared to exposed children who engaged in less VPA. Associations were independent of child age, sex, BMI Z-score and socioeconomic status. Children born to normal-weight mothers did not differ in either IQ or global FA by time in VPA.
Conclusions
Our findings support findings in rodent models and suggest that VPA during childhood modifies the relationship between prenatal exposure to maternal obesity and child IQ and white matter microstructure.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author (KAP), on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the families who participate in the BrainChild Study. The authors would also like to thank Ana Romero for managing the BrainChild study, Alexis Defendis for study assistance, Mayra Martinez and Janet Mora-Marquez for recruiting volunteers, the staff at Dana and David Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimaging Center at USC and the staff at the USC Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute.
Funding
This work was supported by an American Diabetes Association Pathway Accelerator Award (#1-14-ACE-36) (PI: KAP) and in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) R01DK116858 (PIs: KAP, AHX) and the National Institute Of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number F31MH115640 (PI: JMA). A Research Electronic Data Capture, REDCap, database was used for this study, which is supported by the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) through NIH UL1TR001855.
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KAP and AHX had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and accuracy of the data analysis; KAP, SL and AHX contributed to study concept and design; JMA, KAP and AHX drafted the manuscript; All authors critically revised the manuscript for intellectual content; Statistical and neuroimaging analyses were performed by JMA, BCA, JZ, TC, and AHX; MMH, and KC provided content knowledge and feedback for neuroimaging analyses; BRB and CDC provided content knowledge and feedback for physical activity and statistical methodology; KAP and AHX obtained funding; KAP and AHX provided study supervision.
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Alves, J.M., Angelo, B.C., Zink, J. et al. Child physical activity as a modifier of the relationship between prenatal exposure to maternal overweight/obesity and neurocognitive outcomes in offspring. Int J Obes 45, 1310–1320 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00794-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00794-6