Background Preterm birth is the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality and is associated with adverse developmental and long-term health outcomes, including several cardiometabolic risk factors and outcomes. However, evidence about the association of preterm birth with later body size derives mainly from studies using birth weight as a proxy of prematurity rather than an actual length of gestation. ...
Background. Fetal smoke exposure is a common and key avoidable risk factor for birth complications and seems to influence later risk of overweight. It is unclear whether this increased risk is also present if mothers smoke during the first trimester only or reduce the number of cigarettes during pregnancy, or when only fathers smoke. We aimed to assess the associations of parental smoking during pregnancy, spec...
Maternal obesity and excessive gestational weight gain may have persistent effects on offspring fat development. However, it remains unclear whether these effects differ by severity of obesity, and whether these effects are restricted to the extremes of maternal body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain. We aimed to assess the separate and combined associations of maternal BMI and gestational weight gai...
Objective To assess the separate and combined associations of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain with the risks of pregnancy complications and their population impact. Design Individual participant data meta-analysis of 39 cohorts. Setting Europe, North America, and Oceania. Population 265 270 births. Methods Information on maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, gestational weight gai...
BackgroundGestational weight gain differs according to pre-pregnancy body mass index and is related to the risks of adverse maternal and child health outcomes. Gestational weight gain charts for women in different pre-pregnancy body mass index groups enable identification of women and offspring at risk for adverse health outcomes. We aimed to construct gestational weight gain reference charts for underweight, n...
Not only healthy growth but also childhood obesity partly originate from early life. The current work aimed to examine the association of feeding practices during infancy with growth and adiposity indices in preschool children from four European countries and in UK schoolchildren and adolescents. Existing data from four European birth cohorts (ALSPAC-UK, EDEN-France, EuroPrevall-Greece and Generation XXI-Portug...
IMPORTANCE: Maternal fish intake in pregnancy has been shown to influence fetal growth. The extent to which fish intake affects childhood growth and obesity remains unclear. OBJECTIVE:To examine whether fish intake in pregnancy is associated with offspring growth and the risk of childhood overweight and obesity. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:Multicenter, population-based birth cohort study of singleton deli...
Problematic eating behaviours during early childhood could be mediators of poor dietary habits. This study aims to prospectively relate early eating behaviours with fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake and a healthy diet variety score of children aged between 4 and 5 years. Eating behaviours were assessed in three European birth cohorts (Generation XXI from Portugal, ALSPAC from the UK and EDEN from France) at 4-6,...
Objective: The present study examined whether maternal diet and early infant feeding experiences relating to being breast-fed and complementary feeding influence the range of healthy foods consumed in later childhood. Design: Data from four European birth cohorts were studied. Healthy Plate Variety Score (HPVS) was calculated using FFQ. HPVS assesses the variety of healthy foods consumed within and across the f...
BACKGROUND: Fish is a rich source of essential nutrients for fetal development, but in contrast, it is also a well-known route of exposure to environmental pollutants. OBJECTIVE: We assessed whether fish intake during pregnancy is associated with fetal growth and the length of gestation in a panel of European birth cohort studies. DESIGN: The study sample of 151,880 mother-child pairs was derived from 19 popula...