| dc.description.abstract | Background: Maternal obesity is known to effect offspring obesity development. Studies have shown that maternal pre-pregnancy BMI (pre-BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) are positively related to infant birth weight and body composition. In addition, maternal fat patterning (central vs. peripheral) before pregnancy is directly related to infant birth weight. However, no study has examined the correlation between quantified maternal fat mass location (central vs. peripheral) and infant body composition. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether maternal central vs. peripheral fat mass (FM) was related to infant body composition (percent body fat (%fat), FM and fat free mass (FFM)). Methods: Thirty-eight mother-infant pairs were included in this analysis. Maternal central and peripheral FM was measured by dual-energy-x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at 2 weeks postpartum. Maternal central FM was represented by trunk FM and maternal peripheral FM was represented by the sum of arm and leg FM. Infant body composition was measured by air displacement plethysmography (Pea Pod®) at 1-3 days after birth. Due to the small sample size, first simple linear regression was completed to assess the relationship between infant body composition (dependent variable) and maternal peripheral and central FM (independent variables). Next, the analyses were repeated using multiple linear regression with the following maternal covariates: age, parity, race, socioeconomic status (SES), GWG, weight loss 2 week postpartum, and infant covariates; gender, age at test and gestational age (GA). Only significant covariates were retained in the final model. Results: In the simple linear regression analysis, maternal peripheral FM was significantly related to infant FM (β=11.61, p=0.045) and borderline significant for infant %fat (β=0.28, p=0.055). The next series of results report the findings when including covariates. When predicting infant %fat, maternal central FM (β=0.43, p=0.011), maternal age (β=-0.36, p=0.022), and SES were significantly correlated, (high school vs. some college, p=0.033; high school vs. 4-year college, p=0.041). When predicting infant FM, maternal peripheral FM (β=13.75, p=0.009), maternal weight loss 2 weeks postpartum (β=16.604, p=0.041), and infant age at test (β=-761.74, p=0.019) were positively related. When predicting infant FFM, only maternal age (β=35.47, p=0.022), weight loss at 2 weeks postpartum (β=22.33, p=0.023), and infant GA (β= 137.16, p=0.016) were related. Conclusions: When predicting infant FM, maternal peripheral FM and weight loss 2 weeks postpartum were positively related. However, infant %fat was significantly related to maternal central FM, age and SES. Further studies with a larger sample size are needed to understand these relationships. | |
