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Preconception Health Trajectories and Birth Weight in a National Prospective Cohort
Journal of Adolescent Health, 05/23/2012
Strutz KL et al. – This study provides new evidence about the influence of maternal body mass index trajectories on offspring birth weight. Adult–onset overweight/obesity during the transition to adulthood was common in the sample and increased the odds of subsequently delivering a macrosomic infant by 56%. This finding suggests that healthy weight promotion before this transition would confer intergenerational benefits, and supports recommendations for preconception care to address overweight/obesity.
Methods- Data came from Waves I (1994–1995), III (2001–2002), and IV (2007–2008) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
- Eligibility was restricted to all the singleton live births (n = 3,436) to female participants occurring between the Wave III (ages 18–26 years) and Wave IV (ages 24–32 years) interviews.
- Preconception cigarette smoking, overweight/obesity, adequate physical activity, heavy alcohol consumption, and fair/poor self-rated health were measured in adolescence (Wave I) and early adulthood (Wave III) and combined into four-category variables to capture the timing and sequencing of exposure.
- The outcome measure, birth weight, was classified as low (<2,500 g), normal (2,500–4,000 g), and macrosomic (>4,000 g).
- Multinomial logistic regression results indicated that adult-onset overweight significantly increased the odds of having a macrosomic birth (odds ratio = 1.56; 95% confidence interval = 1.02–2.38).
