Association between maternal glucose levels in pregnancy and offspring's metabolism and adiposity: an 18-year birth cohort study.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The study aimed to explore the association between maternal glucose levels in pregnancy and offspring's metabolism and adiposity at approximately 18 years of age.

METHODS

Pregnant women from the Hong Kong Field Centre enrolled in the Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome (HAPO) study underwent a 75 g OGTT at 24-32 gestational weeks. Offspring's metabolic and adiposity traits were assessed at 18 years postpartum. Associations were evaluated using multiple linear regression and logistic regression.

RESULTS

Among the 506 mother-child pairs followed up to 18 years, maternal fasting plasma glucose (FPG) in pregnancy was positively associated with offspring's FPG (β = 0.06 [95% CI 0.02, 0.09]), while maternal 1 h plasma glucose (PG) showed a positive association with offspring's FPG (β = 0.05), 30 min PG (β = 0.21) and 2 h PG (β = 0.14). All maternal glycaemic levels were associated with an increased risk of offspring being overweight/obese, particularly maternal 1 h PG (OR 1.50 [95% CI 1.17, 1.93]). Offspring of mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus showed a higher prevalence of abnormal glucose tolerance (11.86% vs 7.97%), impaired fasting glucose (1.89% vs 0.49%) and impaired glucose tolerance (10.34% vs 7.13%) than offspring of mothers with normal glucose tolerance, although these associations did not reach statistical significance in fully adjusted models, underscoring the benefit of considering maternal glucose as a continuous trait.

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Maternal glucose levels in pregnancy showed a long-term association with offspring's metabolic health into young adulthood, with continuous associations across the full maternal glucose spectrum, suggesting a graded effect of maternal hyperglycaemia on offspring's metabolic risk.