Associations between maternal metabolic parameters during pregnancy and fetal and child growth trajectories from 20 weeks' gestation to 5 years of age: Secondary analysis from the ROLO longitudinal birth cohort study

Abstract

Objective: To examine the association between maternal metabolic parameters in pregnancy and growth trajectories up to 5 years of age.

Methods: Data from mother-child pairs who participated in the ROLO study, a randomized trial examining the impact of a low glycaemic index diet on the recurrence of macrosomia, were analysed. Fetal and child growth trajectories were developed from longitudinal measurements from 20 weeks gestation up to 5 years of age. We examined associations between maternal fasting glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR and leptin, taken in early pregnancy (14-16 weeks) and late pregnancy (28 weeks), and weight (kg) and abdominal circumference (cm) trajectories using linear spline multilevel models.

Results: We found no strong evidence of associations between any maternal metabolic parameters and fetal to childhood weight and abdominal circumference trajectories from 20 weeks gestation to 5 years.

Conclusion: In a cohort of women with obesity with infants at risk of macrosomia, maternal metabolic markers were not strongly associated with trajectories of weight or abdominal circumference from 20 weeks gestation to 5 years of age.

Keywords: child growth; fetal growth; glucose; growth trajectories; insulin.