School of Business, Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts, and Centre for Health Research, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia.
Research Unit, Purple Informatics, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
PLoS One. 2021 Sep 13;16(9):e0257188. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257188. eCollection 2021.
This study investigates the associations between maternal health and health-related behaviours (nutrition, physical activity, alcohol consumption and smoking) both during pregnancy and up to 15 months from childbirth and children's health outcomes during infancy and adolescence (general health, presence of a chronic illness, and physical health outcome index).
This study used Wave 1 (2004) and Wave 7 (2016) data from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Children (LSAC). We measured mothers' general health, presence of a medical condition during pregnancy and mental health during pregnancy or in the year after childbirth. We subsequently measured the children's general health, presence of a medical condition, and physical health outcome index at ages 0-1 (infancy) and 12-13 (adolescence). Binary logistic and linear regression analyses were performed to examine the association between the mothers' health-related variables and their children's health.
Our results showed that poor general health of the mother in the year after childbirth was associated with higher odds of poor health in infants and adolescents in all three dimensions: poor general health (OR: 3.13, 95% CI: 2.16-4.52 for infants; OR: 1.39, 95% CI: 0.95-2.04 for adolescents), presence of a chronic condition (OR: 1.47, 95% CI: 1.19-1.81 for adolescents) and lower physical health score (b = -0.94, p-value <0.05 for adolescents). Our study also revealed that the presence of a chronic condition in mothers during pregnancy significantly increased the likelihood of the presence of a chronic condition in their offspring during infancy (OR: 1.31, 95% CI: 1.12-1.54) and during adolescence (OR: 1.45, 95% CI: 1.20-1.75). The study found that stressful life events faced by mothers increase the odds of poor general health or any chronic illness during adolescence, while stress, anxiety or depression during pregnancy and psychological distress in the year after childbirth increase the odds of any chronic illness during infancy.
The present study found evidence that poor maternal physical and mental health during pregnancy or up to 15 months from childbirth has adverse health consequences for their offspring as measured by general health, presence of chronic health conditions, and physical health index scores. This suggests that initiatives to improve maternal physical and mental health would not only improve child health but would also reduce the national health burden.
本研究调查了母亲在怀孕期间及产后 15 个月内的健康状况（营养、身体活动、饮酒和吸烟）与儿童健康状况（婴儿期和青少年期的一般健康、慢性疾病的存在以及身体健康结果指数）之间的关联。
本研究使用了来自澳大利亚儿童纵向研究（LSAC）的第 1 波（2004 年）和第 7 波（2016 年）的数据。我们测量了母亲在怀孕期间及产后一年的一般健康状况、是否患有医疗状况以及心理健康状况。随后，我们在 0-1 岁（婴儿期）和 12-13 岁（青少年期）时测量了儿童的一般健康状况、是否患有慢性疾病以及身体健康结果指数。我们进行了二元逻辑回归和线性回归分析，以检验母亲健康相关变量与子女健康之间的关联。
我们的结果表明，产后一年内母亲的一般健康状况较差与婴儿和青少年在所有三个维度上的健康状况较差有关：一般健康状况（OR：3.13，95%CI：2.16-4.52 岁）；婴儿；OR：1.39，95%CI：0.95-2.04 岁）；青少年）；存在慢性疾病（OR：1.47，95%CI：1.19-1.81 岁）和较低的身体健康评分（b = -0.94，p 值 <0.05 岁）。我们的研究还表明，母亲在怀孕期间患有慢性疾病会显著增加其子女在婴儿期（OR：1.31，95%CI：1.12-1.54）和青少年期（OR：1.45，95%CI：1.20-1.75）患有慢性疾病的可能性。研究发现，母亲面临的压力生活事件会增加青少年时期一般健康状况或任何慢性疾病的发生几率，而怀孕期间的压力、焦虑或抑郁以及产后一年内的心理困扰会增加婴儿期任何慢性疾病的发生几率。
本研究发现，母亲在怀孕期间及产后 15 个月内的身体和心理健康状况不佳会对子女的健康产生不良后果，这可通过一般健康状况、慢性健康状况的存在以及身体健康指数来衡量。这表明，改善母亲身心健康的举措不仅可以改善儿童的健康状况，还可以减轻国家的健康负担。
