Mothers with gestational diabetes are more likely to give birth to children who experience early weight problems

Abstract

Aim: We tracked the body mass index (BMI) of children born to mothers with or without gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) or type 1 diabetes from birth to 12 years of age and examined the trends in both diseases.

Methods: Antenatal and postnatal health survey data were collected from 6909 Finnish children born at six time points between 1974 and 2004. We compared the BMI trajectory between the offspring of mothers with and without GDM or type 1 diabetes, and the association between GDM and overweight offspring was analysed.

Results: The prevalence of GDM and type 1 diabetes increased markedly over the study period. The BMI trajectory in the GDM or type 1 diabetes offspring differed significantly from the nondiabetic offspring. The timing of adiposity rebound occurred significantly earlier in the GDM (4.8 years) and type 1 diabetes (4.4 years) groups than the nondiabetic group (5.5 years). GDM offspring were more likely to be overweight at five, seven and 12 years of age (24.6%, 28.1%, 29.4%) than nondiabetic offspring (15.6%, 18.3%, 18.1%).

Conclusion: Children born to mothers with GDM were significantly more likely to be overweight at an early age than those born to nondiabetic mothers.

Keywords: Adiposity rebound; Body mass index trajectory; Child obesity; Gestational diabetes; Type 1 diabetes.