Leonard SA, et al. - This study reports on longitudinal trajectories of maternal weight from before pregnancy through the postpartum period. Researchers also examined the links between maternal weight trajectories and offspring obesity in childhood. Findings indicated that high maternal weight across the childbearing period conferred an increased risk of obesity in offspring during childhood. Data reported a stronger influence of high prepregnancy BMI versus either gestational weight gain or postpartum weight retention.

Methods

• Researchers analyzed data from 4436 pairs of mothers and their children in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (1981–2014).
• They used latent-class growth modeling in addition to national recommendations for prepregnancy BMI, gestational weight gain, and postpartum weight retention to create maternal weight trajectory groups.
• They also used modified Poisson regression models to examine the links between maternal weight trajectory group and offspring obesity at 3 age periods (2–5, 6–11, and 12–19 y).

Results

• Findings of this analysis using maternal weight trajectories based on either latent-class results or recommendations demonstrated that the risk of child obesity was lowest in the lowest maternal weight trajectory group.
• Researchers observed that the differences in obesity risk were largest after 5 y of age and persisted into adolescence.
• In the latent-class analysis, they noted that the highest-order maternal weight trajectory group consisted almost entirely of women who were obese before pregnancy and was associated with a >2-fold increase in the risk of offspring obesity at ages 6–11 y (adjusted RR: 2.39; 95% CI: 1.97, 2.89) and 12–19 y (adjusted RR: 2.74; 95% CI: 2.13, 3.52).
• Furthermore, in the analysis with maternal weight trajectory groups based on recommendations, it was shown that the risk of child obesity was consistently highest for women who were overweight or obese at the beginning of pregnancy.