Prevalence of risk factors for developing childhood obesity in maternity

Abstract

Background: During the perinatal period several maternal and obstetric risk factors are known to be associated with overweight and childhood obesity.

Method: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of risk factors for childhood obesity identifiable at birth. Data extracted from the computerized medical record (DXCARE^R) women who gave birth in the maternity ward of the University hospital of Bordeaux during a 11 months-period constituted an anonymized database to calculate the prevalence of the following risk factors: maternal obesity prior to pregnancy, excessive weight gain during pregnancy, maternal smoking, gestational diabetes, low socioeconomic status, cesarean delivery, macrosomia, and lack of breastfeeding. After eliminating duplicates and women for whom data on risk factors were missing, the population available for analysis was 1977 women who responded to inclusion criteria.

Results: At the onset of pregnancy, mean age of women was 31.6 years [± 5.2] and mean BMI was 23.9 kg / m² [± 4.9], a third of them being overweight or obese. During pregnancy, half of women had excessive weight gain, gestational diabetes occurred in 15.9 % of them, 15.9 % smoked, and 18.1 % were in a precarious situation. Children were born by cesarean section in 15.3 % of cases. Depending on the definition used, exact birth weight (BW) or Audipog formula (percentile), neonates were large for gestational age in respectively 6.7 % of cases (BW> 4000 g) or 11 % (> 90th percentile) and small for gestational age in respectively 3 % of cases (BW <2500 g) and 6.8 % (<10th percentile). They were formula fed in 28.7 % of cases. The multivariate analysis showed that the association between excessive weight gain during pregnancy and birth weight is influenced by all other risk factors, except breastfeeding.

Conclusion: Risk factors for developing childhood obesity, which are largely interrelated and influenced by medical care, can be identified as early as the maternity ward. Based on their prevalence, the development of a risk score will make it possible to set up an intervention program for the early prevention of childhood obesity right from the maternity ward.

Keywords: Maternity; Obesity; Prevalence; Risk factors.