Associations of maternal diet and nutritional status with offspring hepatic steatosis in the Avon longitudinal study of parents and children

BACKGROUND: Priming for cardiometabolic diseases, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), is hypothesized to begin in utero. The primary objective of this study is to determine whether there is an association between maternal nutritional status and offspring NAFLD. METHODS: Data come from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) in the UK. The analytic sample included 3353 participants who had maternal information on pre-pregnancy BMI, gestational weight gain, diabetes, and free sugar intake as percent of total energy and were assessed for mild-severe hepatic steatosis at 24 years by transient elastography (controlled attenuation parameter score ≥ 248 dB/m). Multiple logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between maternal factors and offspring hepatic steatosis at 24 years. RESULTS: In confounder-adjusted models the independent associations for each maternal factor with mild to severe vs low hepatic steatosis at 24 years were: pre-pregnancy overweight (OR: 1.84, 95%CL: 1.43–2.38) or obesity (OR: 2.73, 95%CL: 1.84–4.03), more than recommended gestational weight gain (OR: 1.30, 95%CL: 1.04–1.64), diabetes (OR: 1.39, 95%CI: 0.87, 2.21), and high free sugar intake during pregnancy (OR: 1.04, 95% CI: 0.82, 1.33). These associations were largely mediated by BMI at 24 years, but not by birthweight or breastfeeding. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that maternal nutritional status is associated with the development of NAFLD in their adult offspring, although the relationship is largely mediated by offspring BMI in adulthood. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40795-021-00433-3.