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. 2022 Apr 4;14(7):1506.
doi: 10.3390/nu14071506.

Parental Prepuberty Overweight and Offspring Lung Function

Marianne Lønnebotn  1   2 , Lucia Calciano  3 , Ane Johannessen  1 , Deborah L Jarvis  4   5 , Michael J Abramson  6 , Bryndís Benediktsdóttir  7 , Lennart Bråbäck  8 , Karl A Franklin  9 , Raúl Godoy  10 , Mathias Holm  11 , Christer Janson  12 , Nils O Jõgi  13 , Jorunn Kirkeleit  1   2 , Andrei Malinovschi  14 , Antonio Pereira-Vega  15 , Vivi Schlünssen  16   17 , Shyamali C Dharmage  18 , Simone Accordini  3 , Francisco Gómez Real  13   19 , Cecilie Svanes  1   2
Affiliations

Parental Prepuberty Overweight and Offspring Lung Function

Marianne Lønnebotn et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

In a recent study we found that fathers' but not mothers' onset of overweight in puberty was associated with asthma in adult offspring. The potential impact on offspring's adult lung function, a key marker of general and respiratory health, has not been studied. We investigated the potential causal effects of parents' overweight on adult offspring's lung function within the paternal and maternal lines. We included 929 offspring (aged 18-54, 54% daughters) of 308 fathers and 388 mothers (aged 40-66). Counterfactual-based multi-group mediation analyses by offspring's sex (potential moderator) were used, with offspring's prepubertal overweight and/or adult height as potential mediators. Unknown confounding was addressed by simulation analyses. Fathers' overweight before puberty had a negative indirect effect, mediated through sons' height, on sons' forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) (beta (95% CI): -144 (-272, -23) mL) and forced vital capacity (FVC) (beta (95% CI): -210 (-380, -34) mL), and a negative direct effect on sons' FVC (beta (95% CI): -262 (-501, -9) mL); statistically significant effects on FEV1/FVC were not observed. Mothers' overweight before puberty had neither direct nor indirect effects on offspring's lung function. Fathers' overweight starting before puberty appears to cause lower FEV1 and FVC in their future sons. The effects were partly mediated through sons' adult height but not through sons' prepubertal overweight.

Keywords: ECRHS; RHINE; RHINESSA; causal inference; counterfactual-based mediation analysis; father/paternal/male/men; intergenerational; lung function; nutrition; overweight; prepuberty.

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Conflict of interest statement

Michael J. Abramson holds investigator-initiated grants from Pfizer and Boehringer-Ingelheim for unrelated research. He undertook an unrelated consultancy and received assistance with conference attendance from Sanofi. He also received an unrelated speaker’s fee from GSK. All other authors declare no competing interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study population RHINESSA clinical-stage flow chart. * Offspring with information on their own body silhouette and height and on body silhouettes of their participating parent.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Body silhouettes for men (A) and women (B) used in the ECRHS/RHINE III studies and in the RHINESSA questionnaire survey. Cut-offs for overweight status were five or greater in men, and four or greater in women.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Graphical representation of the mediation model for FEV1 and FVC in sons or daughters within the paternal or maternal lines (model one). The green box represents the exposure of interest, the yellow boxes the mediators and the blue boxes the outcomes. The dotted boxes represent the set of potential confounders and adjusting variables of the mediators (X1: parents’ education level) and of the outcomes (X2: parents’ education level and offspring’s age and their own smoking history).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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