New Findings Support Fetal Overnutrition Hypothesis
Reuters Health Information 2007. © 2007 Reuters Ltd.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Feb 28 - Findings from an epidemiologic study lend
further support to the fetal overnutrition hypothesis: subjects overexposed
to glucose, free fatty acids, and amino acids in utero are at increased risk
for obesity later in life.
According to this hypothesis, it is the mother's weight status that
determines the degree of fetal overnutrition. Thus, the hypothesis helps
explain why obesity is often passed from parent to offspring.
In the present study, reported in the February 15th issue of the American
Journal of Epidemiology, Dr. Debbie A. Lawlor and colleagues correlated the
maternal body mass index (BMI) with offspring BMI in 3340 parent-offspring
trios drawn from an Australian birth cohort.
Maternal BMI was assessed at the first antenatal clinic visit and offspring
BMI was determined at age 14. In addition, paternal BMI was calculated from
the mother's report of the father's height and weight.
The offspring's BMI was more closely linked to the mother's BMI than the
father's, Dr. Lawlor, from the University of Bristol in the UK, and
colleagues note. For a one-standard-deviation increase in maternal and
paternal BMI, offspring BMI increased by 0.362 and 0.239 standard
deviations.
"There is currently an epidemic of obesity in Western societies," the
authors conclude. "The potential importance of the suggestion, from our
study, that greater maternal size during pregnancy, either through
programming of neuroendocrine pathways or through epigenetic or other
mechanisms, results in greater offspring BMI in later life means that this
issue warrants further investigation."
Am J Epidemiol 2007;165:418-424.
Leanne Wynne
Midwife in charge of "Women's Business"
Mildura Aboriginal Health Service Mob 0418 371862
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