Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To examine whether offspring born to mothers with overweight/obesity, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) or both exhibit different body mass index (BMI) trajectories from birth to 6 years old. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: The Glucose in Relation to Women and Babies' Health (GrownB) Study at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center. POPULATION OR SAMPLE: Twenty thousand four hundred fifty six mother-offspring pairs. METHODS: Mothers were classified as normal-weight & non-GDM (NWN), normal-weight & GDM (NWG), overweight/obesity & non-GDM (OWN) or overweight/obesity & GDM (OWG). Offspring BMI trajectories were estimated using linear mixed-effects models in two age periods (0-24 months and 2-6 years), adjusting for confounding. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We extracted offspring's birth weight, recumbent length (age < 2 years) or standing height (age ≥ 2 years), and weight data from routine clinical encounters and physical examinations from the UCLA electronic health records. RESULTS: Offspring of mothers with overweight/obesity had higher BMI trajectories than those of normal-weight mothers across both 0-24 months (BMI mean differences overall 0-24 months: 0.28 [0.17, 0.39] kg/m(2) for OWN vs. NWN; 0.53 [0.21, 0.85] kg/m(2) for OWG vs. NWG) and 2-6 years (0.58 [0.45, 0.70] kg/m(2) for OWN vs. NWN; 0.53 [0.20, 0.87] kg/m(2) for OWG vs. NWG). No significant differences were observed by GDM status (i.e., NWG vs. NWN; OWG vs. OWN, all p > 0.21). CONCLUSIONS: Maternal pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity was associated with higher offspring BMI trajectories from birth to age of 6 years, while the association was not observed for GDM.