Maternal adiposity prior to pregnancy is associated with adhd symptoms in offspring: evidence from three prospective pregnancy cohorts

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVES: We examine whether pregnancy weight (pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and/or weight gain) is related to core symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

(ADHD) in school-age offspring. DESIGN: Follow-up of prospective pregnancy cohorts from Sweden, Denmark and Finland within the Nordic Network on ADHD. METHODS: Maternal pregnancy and

delivery data were collected prospectively. Teachers rated inattention and hyperactivity symptoms in offspring. High scores were defined as at least one core symptom rated as ‘severe’ and

two as ‘present’ (approximately 10% of children scored in this range). Logistic regression and latent class analyses were used to examine maternal pregnancy weight in relation to

children's ADHD core symptoms. RESULTS: Teacher rated 12 556 school-aged children. Gestational weight gain outside of the Institute of Medicine guidelines was not related to ADHD

symptoms (below recommendations: odds ratio (OR): 0.96; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.81, 1.14; above recommendations: OR: 0.98; 95% CI: 0.82, 1.16). To examine various patterns of

pre-pregnancy BMI and weight gain, we used latent class analysis and found significant associations between classes that included pre-pregnancy overweight or obesity and a high ADHD symptom

score in offspring, ORs ranged between 1.37 (95% CI: 1.07, 1.75) and 1.89 (95% CI: 1.13, 3.15) adjusted for gestational age, birth weight, weight gain, pregnancy smoking, maternal age,

maternal education, child gender, family structure and cohort country of origin. Children of women who were both overweight and gained a large amount of weight during gestation had a 2-fold

risk of ADHD symptoms (OR: 2.10, 95% CI: 1.19, 3.72) compared to normal-weight women. CONCLUSIONS: We show for the first time that pre-pregnancy BMI is associated with ADHD symptoms in

children. Our results are of public health significance if the associations are causal and will then add ADHD symptoms in offspring to the list of deleterious outcomes related to overweight

and obesity in the prenatal period. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your

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Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS MATERNAL PRE-PREGNANCY OBESITY AND OFFSPRING HYPERACTIVITY-INATTENTION SYMPTOMS AT 5 YEARS IN PRETERM AND TERM

CHILDREN: A MULTI-COHORT ANALYSIS Article Open access 28 October 2022 MATERNAL IRON STATUS DURING PREGNANCY AND ATTENTION DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER SYMPTOMS IN 7-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN: A

PROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY Article Open access 01 December 2022 THE LINK BETWEEN ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD) SYMPTOMS AND OBESITY-RELATED TRAITS: GENETIC AND PRENATAL

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Nordic Council of Ministers research program on Longitudinal Epidemiology (NordForsk nr. 020056). Cohorts were supported by The Swedish Research Council (345-2004-156); The Academy of

Finland (103451), Sigrid Juselius Foundation, Finland; Thule Institute, University of Oulu, Finland and the Danish Medical Research Council. Parts of this paper were presented at the

Congress of Epidemiology 2006, Seattle, USA. Study concept, statistical analyses and drafting the manuscript were done by A Rodriguez. J Miettunen supervised and contributed to statistical

analyses and data interpretation. M-R Järvelin, TB Henriksen and J Olsen were involved in the study concept, design and data interpretation. Design and execution of the cohorts was done by A

Rodriguez (Sweden), J Olsen (Denmark) and M-R Järvelin (Finland). TB Henriksen (Denmark) and I Moilanen (Finland) played important roles in original cohort design. C Obel (Denmark) and A

Taanila (Finland) were responsible for cohort data integrity. All authors critically revised the manuscript. The funding sources had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis,

data interpretation or writing of the report. The corresponding author had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.

AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden A Rodriguez * Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska

Institute, Sweden A Rodriguez * Department of Psychiatry, University and University Hospital of Oulu, Finland J Miettunen * Department of Pediatrics, Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby,

Denmark T B Henriksen * The Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, Aarhus University, Denmark J Olsen * Department of Epidemiology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA J Olsen * Department of Pediatrics

and Obstetrics, Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby Sygehus, Denmark C Obel & K M Linnet * The Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, Aarhus University, Denmark C Obel * Department of

Public Health Science and General Practice, University of Oulu, Finland A Taanila & M-R Järvelin * Clinic of Child Psychiatry, University and University Hospital of Oulu, Finland H

Ebeling & I Moilanen * Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK M-R Järvelin Authors * A Rodriguez View author publications You can also search

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AUTHOR Correspondence to A Rodriguez. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION COMPETING INTERESTS None declared. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE

Rodriguez, A., Miettunen, J., Henriksen, T. _et al._ Maternal adiposity prior to pregnancy is associated with ADHD symptoms in offspring: evidence from three prospective pregnancy cohorts.

_Int J Obes_ 32, 550–557 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803741 Download citation * Received: 19 February 2007 * Revised: 12 July 2007 * Accepted: 31 July 2007 * Published: 16

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deficit hyperactivity disorder * child * body mass index * pregnancy * fetal origins * cohort studies