No abstract

Maternal early pregnancy overweight and obesity and depressive symptoms during and after pregnancy are associated. Mental health promotion should be included as an integral part of lifestyle interventions in early pregnancy obesity and extended to benefit also overweight and underweight women.

Background: Maternal early pregnancy overweight (body mass index [BMI] 25.0-29.9 kg/m 2) and obesity (BMI≥30 kg/m 2) are associated with mental and physical health adversities in the offspring. Prenatal programming of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has been put forward as one of the mechanisms that may play pathophysiological role. However, evidence linking maternal overweight and obesity with offspring HPA-axis activity is scarce. We studied if maternal early pregnancy BMI is associated with diurnal salivary cortisol, a marker of HPA-axis activity, in young adult offspring. Methods: At a mean age of 25.3 (standard deviation [SD)=0.6) years, 653 Arvo Ylppö Longitudinal Study participants collected saliva samples for cortisol analyses, at awakening, 15 and 30 minutes thereafter, 10:30AM, 12:00PM, 5:30PM and at bedtime. Maternal BMI was calculated from weight and height verified by a measurement in the first antenatal clinic visit before 12 weeks of gestation derived from healthcare records. Results: Per each one kg/m 2 higher maternal early pregnancy BMI offspring diurnal average salivary cortisol was-1.4% (95% CI:-2.6,-0.2, pFDR=0.033) lower, at awakening it was-2.4% (95% CI:-4.0,-0.7, pFDR=0.025) lower and the morning average salivary cortisol was-2.0% (95% CI:-3.4,-0.5, pFDR=0.017) lower. These associations were independent of the offspring's own young adulthood BMI, and other important covariates. Conclusion: Our findings show that young adult offspring born to mothers with higher early pregnancy BMI show lower average levels of diurnal cortisol, especially in the morning. Whether these findings reflect prenatal programming of the offspring HPA-axis activity warrants further investigation.

Background:Childhood cognitive ability has been identified as a novel risk factor for adulthood overweight and obesity as assessed by adult body mass index (BMI). BMI does not, however, distinguish fat-free and metabolically harmful fat tissue. Hence, we examined the associations between childhood cognitive abilities and body fat percentage (BF%) in young adulthood.Methods:Participants of the Arvo Ylppö Longitudinal Study (n=816) underwent tests of general reasoning, visuomotor integration, verbal competence and language comprehension (M=100; s.d.=15) at the age of 56 months. At the age of 25 years, they underwent a clinical examination, including measurements of BF% by the InBody 3.0 eight-polar tactile electrode system, weight and height from which BMI (kg m−2) was calculated and waist circumference (cm).Results:After adjustments for sex, age and BMI-for-age s.d. score at 56 months, lower general reasoning and visuomotor integration in childhood predicted higher BMI (kg m−2) increase per s.d. unit decrease in cognitive ability (−0.32, 95% confidence interval −0.60,−0.05; −0.45, −0.75,−0.14, respectively) and waist circumference (cm) increase per s.d. unit decrease in cognitive ability (−0.84, −1.56,−0.11; −1.07,−1.88,−0.26, respectively) in adulthood. In addition, lower visuomotor integration predicted higher BF% per s.d. unit decrease in cognitive ability (−0.62,−1.14,−0.09). Associations between general reasoning and BMI/waist were attenuated when adjusted for smoking, alcohol consumption, intake of fruits and vegetables and physical activity in adulthood, and all associations, except for visuomotor integration and BMI, were attenuated when adjusted for parental and/or own attained education and/or birth weight.Conclusions:Of the measured childhood cognitive abilities, only lower visuomotor integration was associated with BF% in adulthood. This challenges the view that cognitive ability, at least when measured in early childhood, poses a risk for adiposity in adulthood, as characterized by higher BF%.

Objective: Childhood cognitive ability is associated with lifestyle in adulthood, including self-reported physical activity (PA). We examined whether childhood cognitive ability is associated with objectively measured PA and sedentary time (ST) in young adulthood. Method: Participants of the Arvo Ylppö Longitudinal Study (n = 500) underwent tests of general reasoning, visuomotor integration, verbal competence, and language comprehension at the age of 56 months yielding a general intelligence factor score; at the age of 25 years they wore omnidirectional accelerometers for 9 days (range = 4–10 days) measuring overall daily PA (counts per minute, cpm), ST, and light and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) (minutes), and completed a questionnaire on occupational, commuting, leisure-time conditioning and nonconditioning PA. Results: After adjustment for sex, age, BMI-for-age SD score at 56 months. and mean of valid minutes of measurement period for PA, per each 1 SD increase in the childhood general intelligence factor score, overall daily PA decreased by −8.99 cpm/day, ST increased by 14.93 min/day, time spent in light PA decreased by −14.39 min/day, and the odds per each level increase in physical demandingness of the work and in time spent in nonconditioning leisure-time PA decreased by 38% and 31%, respectively (p values < 0.04). These associations were mediated via higher young adulthood level of education. Conclusions: In contrast to expected, in this cohort of young adults with high variability in PA, of whom many were still studying, higher childhood cognitive ability was associated with more objectively measured and self-reported physical inactivity. Whether these findings persist beyond young adulthood is a subject of further studies.