Maternal postload 1-hour glucose level during pregnancy and offspring’s overweight/obesity status in preschool age

BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity is associated with adverse outcomes such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases in adulthood. Identifying risk factors related to excessive adiposity in early childhood is of great importance for obesity intervention. The results of studies for associations between maternal with gestational diabetes and offspring obesity are conflicting. Nonetheless, the association of maternal glucose across a spectrum of glucose values with childhood adiposity outcomes is less clear. AIM: To assess the association of maternal glucose across a spectrum of glucose values with childhood adiposity at age 5 years. METHODS: A population-based cohort study was conducted between 2011 and 2018. Using the healthcare records data were from the Medical Birth Registry in Xiamen, China. The primary outcome was offspring obese/obesity. Primary predictors were maternal oral glucose tolerance test values during pregnancy. RESULTS: 6090 mother–child pairs were analyzed. The mean age of the children at follow-up was 5.2 years. At multiple logistic regression, after adjustment for variables, including maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), birth weight of offspring, and insulin therapy, ORs for offspring overweight/obesity were 1.13 (95% CI 0.90 to 1.42) for maternal fasting glucose levels, 1.12 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.22) for 1-hour glucose, and 1.04 (95% CI 0.95 to 1.14) for 2-hour glucose. The adjusted association of offspring BMI Z-score with maternal 1-hour glucose level remained significant. There were no significant associations between BMI Z-score and maternal fasting glucose and 2-hour glucose level. Exploratory sex-specific analyses indicated generally consistent associations for boys and girls. CONCLUSION: Maternal postload 1-hour glucose across a spectrum of glucose values during pregnancy was an independent risk for offspring weight gain at age 5 years, indicating the importance of screen and management of maternal 1-hour glucose level, except for fasting glucose and 2-hour glucose level during pregnancy in order to prevent offspring weight gain in early childhood.