Predictors of adults’ body mass index and the association with index child’s infant birth weight, in the Lifeways Cross-Generation Cohort Study of a thousand families in the Republic of Ireland

Abstract

The Lifeways study is novel in having information on three generations of the same families. It is well established that infant birth weight (IBW) predicts individuals' risk of adult chronic disease and more recently studies report cross-generation transmission of risk patterns. The aims of this analysis were to examine whether adults' birth weights were associated with measures of own health status or social position and to relate adults' birth weights to that of the index child's IBW. Finally, we assessed whether birth weight of either adults or children was associated with adult body mass index (BMI) of parents and grandparents. We included 1075 children whose IBW was recorded at recruitment from hospital records and 2546 adult cohort members followed from 2001 until 2014. At baseline, a sub-group of 920 adults had reported own birth weight (RBW). Results showed male adults' RBW were significantly higher than females' (P=0.001). Mothers' RBW was significantly correlated with IBW (r=0.178, P<0.001). In mixed effects linear models with BMI as the outcome variable, of all adults, and in sub-groups of adults with RBW and of mothers only, the IBW was associated with adult BMI adjusting for other predictors. Adults' BMI was positively associated with age (P=0.013), index child's IBW (P=0.001), gender (P<0.001) but not own RBW, adjusting for family identification number. When mothers were removed from the adult models however, IBW ceased to be associated with BMI, a final model showed RBW being associated with adult BMI (P=0.04). There are cross-generational associations in the Lifeways cohort, the maternal association being stronger.

Infancy and Childhood Obesity Grade Predicts Weight Loss in Adulthood: The ONTIME Study

“…The available studies have examined the impact of obesity over three generations by evaluating the offspring’s BMI [ 16 , 18 ] and central adiposity [ 17 ] in childhood, and the risk of excess weight (BMI > 95th percentile) up to adolescence [ 15 ]. Our study shows an impact of the grandparental obesity grade on the offspring’s BMI beyond adolescence, which supports the transgenerational transmission of the obesity cycle up to three generations and its maintenance in adulthood.…”

“…However, Freeman et al [ 9 ] showed that having an overweight or obese father, but a mother of healthy weight, increased the probability of the offspring’s obesity in childhood, suggesting that fathers might also be a key influence. In addition, some studies have been carried out, analyzing the information of three generations (i.e., grandparents, parents, and the offspring) [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Davis et al [ 15 ] showed grandparental obesity to be associated independently from parental obesity with an increased prevalence of overweight individuals among children aged 5 to 19 years, in a US national sample.…”

“…Davis et al [ 15 ] showed grandparental obesity to be associated independently from parental obesity with an increased prevalence of overweight individuals among children aged 5 to 19 years, in a US national sample. Moreover, three studies have provided evidence of a stronger transmission, over three generations, of BMI [ 16 , 18 ] and central adiposity [ 17 ] in childhood through the maternal line. Furthermore, maternal and paternal nutritional knowledge and attitudes may influence the effect of dietary interventions on their offspring [ 19 , 20 ].…”

Food Disgust Scale: Spanish Version

“…In our study, the contribution of the VEGI subscale to the variance in BMI is very small (4%). However, it is important to acknowledge that BMI is multifactorial (Löffler et al, 2017;McKey et al, 2017), thus is difficult for a single factor to explain a large variance percentage. Although it might be possible that food disgust can contribute to adiposity in some populations, only the VEGI subscale was able to predict the increase in BMI in urban Mexican adults.…”

Parental population exposure to historical socioeconomic and political periods and grand-child’s birth weight in the Lifeways Cross-Generation Cohort Study in the Republic of Ireland

“…The Lifeways cross-generation cohort study in the Republic of Ireland provides the potential to examine cross-generational effects of such period exposures for Irish people over the twentieth century, especially those born and raised during the establishment of the Irish Free State and Emergency Powers Act in the WWII period. This is a three generation cohort study established a priori to examine cross-generational influences on the proband children (index-child) recruited during pregnancy in 2001–3 and several previous analyses have shown grand-parental influences on children’s outcomes ( Kelleher et al, 2014 , McKey et al, 2017 , Murrin et al, 2012 , Shrivastava et al, 2012 , Shrivastava et al, 2013 ).…”