Association of maternal exposures with adiposity at age 4/5 years in white British and Pakistani children: findings from the Born in Bradford study

West, J., Santorelli, G., Whincup, P. H., Smith, L., Sattar, N. A. , Cameron, N., Farrar, D., Collings, P., Wright, J. and Lawlor, D. A. (2018) Association of maternal exposures with adiposity at age 4/5 years in white British and Pakistani children: findings from the Born in Bradford study. Diabetologia, 61(1), pp. 242-252. (doi: 10.1007/s00125-017-4457-2) (PMID:29064033) (PMCID:PMC6046463)

Abstract

Aims/hypothesis: There is evidence that, from birth, South Asians are fatter, for a given body mass, than Europeans. The role of developmental overnutrition related to maternal adiposity and circulating glucose in these ethnic differences is unclear. Our aim was to compare associations of maternal gestational adiposity and glucose with adiposity at age 4/5 years in white British and Pakistani children. Methods: Born in Bradford is a prospective study of children born between 2007 and 2010 in Bradford, UK. Mothers completed an OGTT at 27–28 weeks of gestation. We examined associations between maternal gestational BMI, fasting glucose, post-load glucose and diabetes (GDM) and offspring height, weight, BMI and subscapular skinfold (SSF) and triceps skinfold (TSF) thickness at age 4/5 years, using data from 6060 mother–offspring pairs (2717 [44.8%] white British and 3343 [55.2%] Pakistani). Results: Pakistani mothers had lower BMI and higher fasting and post-load glucose and were twice as likely to have GDM (defined using modified WHO criteria) than white British women (15.8% vs 6.9%). Pakistani children were taller and had lower BMI than white British children; they had similar SSF and lower TSF. Maternal BMI was positively associated with the adiposity of offspring in both ethnic groups, with some evidence of stronger associations in Pakistani mother–offspring pairs. For example, the difference in adjusted mean BMI per 1 kg/m2 greater maternal BMI was 0.07 kg/m2 (95% CI 0.05, 0.08) and 0.10 kg/m2 (95% CI 0.09. 0.11) in white British and Pakistani children, respectively, with equivalent results for SSF being 0.07 mm (95% CI 0.05, 0.08) and 0.09 mm (95% CI 0.08. 0.11) (p for ethnic difference < 0.03 for both). There was no strong evidence of association of fasting and post-load glucose, or GDM, with outcomes in either group. Conclusions/interpretation: At age 4/5 years, Pakistani children are taller and lighter than white British children. While maternal BMI is positively associated with offspring adiposity, gestational glycaemia is not clearly related to offspring adiposity in either ethnic group.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: BiB receives core infrastructure funding from the Wellcome Trust (WT101597MA) and a joint grant from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) (MR/N024397/1). This study has received support from the British Heart Foundation (CS/16/4/32482), US National Institutes of Health (R01 DK10324) and European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) / ERC grant agreement no 669545. JW is funded by a UK Medical Research Council (MRC) Population Health Scientist Postdoctoral Award (MR/K021656/1). DAL works in a unit that receives UK MRC funding (MC_UU_12013/5) and is an NIHR senior investigator (NF-SI- 0611-10,196).
• Keywords: Adiposity, children, pregnancy glycaemia, South Asian.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Sattar, Professor Naveed
• Authors: West, J., Santorelli, G., Whincup, P. H., Smith, L., Sattar, N. A., Cameron, N., Farrar, D., Collings, P., Wright, J., and Lawlor, D. A.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health
• Journal Name: Diabetologia
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 0012-186X
• ISSN (Online): 1432-0428
• Published Online: 24 October 2017
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2017 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Diabetologia 61(1): 242-252
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License