Context: Obesity is a global epidemic, and there is a focus on identifying markers of obesity in children with a view to prevention.
Objective: We aimed to examine prospectively the association of maternal fasting lipids with adiposity in 5- to 7-year-old offspring in a large observational study.
Design: Pregnant women (1612) were recruited to the Belfast center of the Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome study in a large tertiary maternity hospital at an average of 28 weeks' gestation. Maternal fasting total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol were estimated at 28 weeks' gestation. Offspring-mother pairs (819) were included in the current study, and adiposity was expressed as body mass index (BMI) z score (1990 British growth standard) and sum of skin-fold (SSF) thicknesses (triceps, subscapular, and suprailiac). Statistical significance was more rigorously defined as P < 0.01 to allow for multiple comparisons.
Results: No linear relation was found between maternal lipids and offspring BMI z score or SSFs (P ≥ 0.01) using correlation analysis. With the use of logistic regression, there was no relation between maternal lipids and offspring adiposity controlled for birthweight z score, offspring age, offspring gender, smoking during pregnancy, offspring energy intake and physical activity, maternal BMI during pregnancy, and fasting glucose during pregnancy (P ≥ 0.01).
Conclusion: Maternal 28-week gestational fasting lipids are not associated with offspring BMI or subcutaneous adiposity at age 5 to 7 years.