Luna M, Oliveira MN , Bull A , Matos A and Ramalho A
Background: Exposure to adverse conditions during the period of intrauterine development can lead to lifelong consequences. In this sense, evidence has pointed to an important influence of maternal variables, such as pre-gestational body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG), on the health of the offspring in adolescence, increasing the risk of obesity and damage to the cardiometabolic profile.
Methods and Findings: This is a cross-sectional study in a cohort of 49 adolescents. The following variables were collected with adolescents in a scheduled consultation: sociodemographic (sex and age), clinical (diastolic and systolic blood pressure), anthropometric (weight, height, BMI and waist circumference [WC]), biochemical (glucose, total cholesterol, LDL-c, HDL-c, triglycerides and leptin) and birth (birth weight and gestational age). In addition, gestational variables (pregestational weight and height, pre-gestational BMI, GWG, and type of delivery) were collected in an interview with the mothers of the young people. For statistical analysis, adolescents were stratified according to sex. A correlation between BMI and WC was observed in adolescence with pre-gestational weight and BMI only in boys (r=0.906; p=0.001, r=0.878; p=0.002/ r=0.909; p=0.001, r=0.865; p=0.003). Moreover, in males, triglycerides correlated with pre-gestational BMI (r=0.712, p=0.048), and LDL-c with GWG (r=0.699, p=0.024). Serum leptin concentration correlated with pre-gestational weight and BMI in girls (r=0.532, p=0.006; r=0.440, p=0.028) and, in boys, with GWG (r=0.901, p=0.037).
Results: In view of the results, it is suggested that gestational anthropometric variables can influence the BMI, WC and biochemical variables of the offspring in a gender-dependent way, largely affecting boys.
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