Maternal vitamin D status and risk of childhood overweight at 5 years of age in two Nordic cohort studies

Anna Amberntsson; Linnea Bärebring; Anna Winkvist; Lauren Lissner; Helle Margrete Meltzer; Anne Lise Brantsæter; Eleni Papadopoulou; Hanna Augustin

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1201171

Maternal vitamin D status and risk of childhood overweight at 5 years of age in two Nordic cohort studies

Front Nutr. 2023 Jul 26:10:1201171. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1201171. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Anna Amberntsson¹, Linnea Bärebring¹, Anna Winkvist¹, Lauren Lissner², Helle Margrete Meltzer³, Anne Lise Brantsæter³, Eleni Papadopoulou⁴, Hanna Augustin¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Nutrition, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
² School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
³ Department of Food Safety, Division of Climate and Environmental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁴ Global Health Cluster, Division of Health Services, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.

Abstract

Introduction: Maternal vitamin D status during pregnancy has been suggested to have a role in childhood adiposity development, but results are conflicting. Our aims were to investigate [1] the relationships between maternal 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) during pregnancy and the child's body mass index (BMI) and risk of overweight at 5 years of age, and [2] maternal pre-pregnancy BMI as effect modifier for these associations.

Methods: Data sources included a subsample from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa sub-cohort; N = 2,744) and the Swedish GraviD cohort study (N = 891). Maternal 25OHD was analyzed in gestational week 18 in the MoBa sub-cohort and week 10 in the GraviD cohort. In the MoBa sub-cohort, parents reported their child's documented measures of weight and length or height from the health card at routine check-up. In the GraviD cohort, this information was collected directly from medical records. Childhood overweight (including obesity) was identified using the International Obesity Task Force cut-offs. Linear and logistic regression models were used to investigate the association between maternal 25OHD and child's BMI and risk of overweight at 5 years of age in each cohort separately, and in a pooled dataset.

Results: In the pooled analysis, maternal 25OHD <30 nmol/L was associated with lower BMI in children at 5 years of age, but not with risk of overweight. Interaction analysis showed that the association was predominant among children of mothers with pre-pregnancy BMI ≥25 kg/m².

Conclusion: Low maternal vitamin D status, particularly in mothers with overweight or obesity, predicted lower BMI in their five-year-old children. However, there was no evidence of an effect on overweight in these children.

Keywords: 25-hydroxyvitamin D; MoBa; childhood BMI; childhood overweight; observational study; pregnancy; vitamin D.