Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Jan 25;123(3):258-65.
doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.980169. Epub 2011 Jan 10.

Association of maternal diabetes mellitus in pregnancy with offspring adiposity into early adulthood: sibling study in a prospective cohort of 280,866 men from 248,293 families

Debbie A Lawlor  1 , Paul Lichtenstein, Niklas Långström
Affiliations

Association of maternal diabetes mellitus in pregnancy with offspring adiposity into early adulthood: sibling study in a prospective cohort of 280,866 men from 248,293 families

Debbie A Lawlor et al. Circulation. .

Abstract

Background: Maternal diabetes mellitus in pregnancy results in greater offspring adiposity at birth. It is unclear whether it is associated with greater adiposity into adulthood, and if so, whether this is via intrauterine mechanisms or shared familial characteristics.

Methods and results: A record-linkage prospective cohort study of 280,866 singleton-born Swedish men from 248,293 families was used to explore the intrauterine effect of maternal diabetes mellitus on offspring body mass index (BMI) in early adulthood. Maternal diabetes mellitus during pregnancy was associated with greater mean BMI at age 18 in their sons. The difference in BMI was similar within brothers and between nonsiblings. BMI of men whose mothers had diabetes mellitus during their pregnancy was on average 0.94 kg/m² greater (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.35 to 1.52) than in their brothers born before their mother was diagnosed with diabetes, after adjustment for birth year, maternal age, parity and education, birth weight, gestational age, and age at assessment of BMI. Early-pregnancy BMI was positively associated with son's BMI between nonsiblings, but there was no association within brothers. Adjustment of the maternal diabetes-offspring BMI association for maternal BMI did not alter the association either within brothers or between nonsiblings. Results were also robust to sensitivity analyses restricting the within-sibling analyses to siblings born within 3 years of each other.

Conclusion: Maternal diabetes mellitus has long-term consequences for greater BMI in offspring; this association is likely to be via intrauterine mechanisms, and is independent of maternal BMI in early pregnancy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sampling frame, eligible cohort and numbers included in analyses
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Jovanovic L, Pettitt DJ. Gestational diabetes mellitus. JAMA. 2001;286:2516–8. - PubMed
    1. Catalano PM, Thomas A, Huston-Presley L, Amini SB. Increased fetal adiposity: a very sensitive marker of abnormal in utero development. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2003;189:1698–704. - PubMed
    1. Metzger BE, Lowe LP, Dyer AR, Trimble ER, Chaovarindr U, Coustan DR, Hadden DR, McChance DR, Hod M, McIntyre HD, Oats JJ, Persson B, Rogers MS, Sacks DA. Hyperglycemia and adverse pregnancy outcomes. N Engl J Med. 2008;358:1991–2002. - PubMed
    1. Pedersen J. Weight and length at birth of infants of diabetic mothers. Acta Endocrinol. 1954;16:330–42. - PubMed
    1. Freinkel N. Banting Lecture 1980. Of pregnancy and progeny. Diabetes. 1980;29:1023–35. - PubMed

Publication types