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
Meta-Analysis
. 2021 Jun 2;19(1):128.
doi: 10.1186/s12916-021-01995-6.

The effects of dietary and lifestyle interventions among pregnant women with overweight or obesity on early childhood outcomes: an individual participant data meta-analysis from randomised trials

Jennie Louise  1 , Amanda J Poprzeczny  1   2 , Andrea R Deussen  1 , Christina Vinter  3   4 , Mette Tanvig  3 , Dorte Moller Jensen  3   4   5 , Annick Bogaerts  6   7 , Roland Devlieger  8 , Fionnuala M McAuliffe  9 , Kristina M Renault  10   11 , Emma Carlsen  12 , Nina Geiker  13 , Lucilla Poston  14 , Annette Briley  14   15 , Shakila Thangaratinam  16 , Jodie M Dodd  17   18
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

The effects of dietary and lifestyle interventions among pregnant women with overweight or obesity on early childhood outcomes: an individual participant data meta-analysis from randomised trials

Jennie Louise et al. BMC Med. .

Abstract

Background: The impact of maternal obesity extends beyond birth, being independently associated with an increased risk of child obesity. Current evidence demonstrates that women provided with a dietary intervention during pregnancy improve their dietary quality and have a modest reduction in gestational weight gain. However, the effect of this on longer-term childhood obesity-related outcomes is unknown.

Methods: We conducted an individual participant data meta-analysis from RCTs in which women with a singleton, live gestation between 10+0 and 20+0 weeks and body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m2 in early pregnancy were randomised to a diet and/or lifestyle intervention or continued standard antenatal care and in which longer-term maternal and child follow-up at 3-5 years of age had been undertaken. The primary childhood outcome was BMI z-score above the 90th percentile. Secondary childhood outcomes included skinfold thickness measurements and body circumferences, fat-free mass, dietary and physical activity patterns, blood pressure, and neurodevelopment.

Results: Seven primary trials where follow-up of participants occurred were identified by a systematic literature search within the International Weight Management in Pregnancy (i-WIP) Collaborative Group collaboration, with six providing individual participant data. No additional studies were identified after a systematic literature search. A total of 2529 children and 2383 women contributed data. Approximately 30% of all child participants had a BMI z-score above the 90th percentile, with no significant difference between the intervention and control groups (aRR 0.97; 95% CI 0.87, 1.08; p=0.610). There were no statistically significant differences identified for any of the secondary outcome measures.

Conclusions: In overweight and obese pregnant women, we found no evidence that maternal dietary and/or lifestyle intervention during pregnancy modifies the risk of early childhood obesity. Future research may need to target the pre-conception period in women and early childhood interventions.

Trial registration: PROSPERO, CRD42016047165.

Keywords: Child follow-up of pregnancy intervention studies; Childhood obesity; Individual participant data meta-analysis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare no support from any organisation for the submitted work, no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years and no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart of search results and study identification
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization: Taking action on childhood obesity. 2018 report In.; 2018.
    1. Poston L. Maternal obesity, gestational weight gain and diet as determinants of offspring long term health. Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2012;26(5):627–639. doi: 10.1016/j.beem.2012.03.010. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Heslehurst N, Vieira R, Akhter Z, Bailey H, Slack E, Ngongalah L, Pemu A, Rankin J. The association between maternal body mass index and child obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS Med. 2019;16(6):e1002817. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002817. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. The International Weight Management in Pregnancy (i-WIP) Collaborative Group Effect of diet and physical activity based interventions in pregnancy on gestational weight gain and pregnancy outcomes: meta-analysis of individual participant data from randomised trials. BMJ. 2017;358:j3119. doi: 10.1136/bmj.j3119. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Heindel JJ, Vandenberg LN. Developmental origins of health and disease: a paradigm for understanding disease cause and prevention. Curr Opin Pediatr. 2015;27(2):248–253. doi: 10.1097/MOP.0000000000000191. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types