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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Little Rock, Arkansas » Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #347388
Title: Postpartum maternal fat distribution and its association with offspring body fat through the first year of life

Author
item SIMS, CLARK - Arkansas Children'S Nutrition Research Center (ACNC)
item CLEVES, MARIO - Arkansas Children'S Nutrition Research Center (ACNC)
item SHANKAR, KARTIK - Arkansas Children'S Nutrition Research Center (ACNC)
item Badger, Thomas
item ANDRES, ALINE - Arkansas Children'S Nutrition Research Center (ACNC)

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/1/2017
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Maternal obesity is known to increase the risk of offspring obesity. Despite the evidence supporting the impact of maternal obesity on infant health, there are no studies examining the effects of maternal fat distribution on the programming of offspring obesity. We hypothesized that increased maternal visceral fat would be associated with increased infant body fat at 2 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months of age. Participants were mother-child dyads enrolled in a longitudinal study assessing the effects of maternal obesity on infant health. Mothers were separated into either the normal weight (n=85) or overweight/obese (n=103) group based on early pregnancy BMI. Maternal body composition was assessed 4 weeks postnatally using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and infant body composition was assessed at 2 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months of age using nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. Linear mixed-effects models were used to investigate the association between the infant's percent body fat during the first year of life and maternal adiposity distribution, accounting for maternal race, age, first trimester activity, energy expenditure, respiratory exchange ratio, gestational age and weight gain, delivery method, infant's birth weight, birth length, sex, and length of breastfeeding. Normal weight mothers had significantly lower BMI, total body fat, subcutaneous fat, and visceral fat than overweight/obese mothers (p<0.0001). As a continuous variable, maternal total body fat and subcutaneous fat were positively associated with increased infant body fat at 2 weeks (p<0.01), 6 months (p<0.01), and over the first year of life (p<0.01). Maternal visceral fat was not associated with increased infant body fat in the longitudinal model (p=0.71). This study demonstrated that postpartum visceral fat did not associate with offspring fat mass. However, greater postpartum total body fat and subcutaneous fat predicted increased offspring fat mass through the infant's first year of life.