AI Article Synopsis
- Prenatal stress during pregnancy may affect how much children weigh later on, but studies have shown mixed results about whether they become overweight or underweight.
- The study looked at 530 kids (254 girls and 276 boys) and used questionnaires and body tests to examine the link between prenatal stress and their weight.
- Findings revealed that prenatal stress was linked to a higher risk of being overweight when checked by body fat measurements, but not when using BMI, suggesting body fat analysis might be better for spotting weight issues from stress.
Article Abstract
Background: One of the environmental factors contributing to abnormal weight changes in children may be maternal exposure to adverse environmental factors during pregnancy, which in previous studies led to inconclusive results showing both overweight or obesity and underweight in children. The aim of the study was to assess the influence of prenatal stress on the BMI status and cut-off points for the percentage of fat content.
Methods: The cohort study included 254 girls and 276 boys. Information on prenatal stress was collected retrospectively with a questionnaire on objective adverse events completed by a parent/guardian of a 6-12-year-old child. We examined the body weight of children and performed an electrical bioimpedance analysis of their body composition. We assessed the BMI status according to the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) criterion and on the basis of body fat according to McCarthy criterion.
Results: The results of our study show that the prenatal stress was related to increased risk of overweight (OR 2.14, 95% CI: 1.25-3.65) diagnosed on the basis of body fat cut-off points, but not when the BMI was a diagnostic criterion (OR 1.03, 95% CI: 0.58-1.83).
Conclusion: The method of diagnosis based on the fat content appears to be an indicator of the occurrence of abnormalities in body composition due to prenatal stress more sensitive than that based on the BMI.
Level Of Evidence: Level III evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case-control analytic studies.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40519-022-01416-4 | DOI Listing |
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