Paternal Weight Prior to Conception and Infant Birthweight: a Prospective Cohort Study

Overview

Journal Nutr Diabetes

Specialties Endocrinology
Nutritional Sciences

Date 2021 Sep 15

PMID 34521807

Citations 7

Authors

Ravi Retnakaran

Shi Wu Wen

Hongzhuan Tan

Shujin Zhou

Chang Ye

Minxue Shen

Graeme N Smith

Mark C Walker

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background/objective: Previous studies have consistently demonstrated that maternal weight status both before and during pregnancy is associated with infant birthweight. However, a fundamental limitation across this literature remains that previous studies have not evaluated the concomitant impact of paternal weight at conception, owing to the paucity of studies in which fathers were assessed prior to pregnancy. Thus, we established a cohort of preconception couples to prospectively evaluate the associations of maternal and paternal weight prior to pregnancy with infant birthweight at delivery.

Methods: In this prospective observational cohort study, 1292 newly-married women and their partners in Liuyang, China, were assessed at median of 23.3 weeks before a singleton pregnancy, thereby enabling concomitant assessment of preconception maternal and paternal body mass index (BMI) in relation to infant birthweight.

Results: Mean birthweight was 3294 ± 450 g with 147 neonates (11.4%) born large-for-gestational-age (LGA) and 94 (7.3%) small-for-gestational-age (SGA). After adjustment for maternal and paternal factors prior to conception (age, education, smoking, BMI, household income), length of gestation, total gestational weight gain, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and infant sex, it was noted that infant birthweight increased by 42.2 g (95% CI 29.5-54.8; p < 0.0001) per unit increase in maternal pregravid BMI and 10.7 g (95% CI 0.5-20.9; p = 0.04) per unit increase in paternal pregravid BMI. Maternal pregravid BMI explained 6.2% of the variance in birthweight whereas paternal BMI explained only 0.7%. Independent predictors of LGA delivery were maternal pregravid BMI (aOR = 1.91, 95% CI 1.50-2.44), maternal age (aOR = 1.48, 95% CI 1.09-2.00), and gestational weight gain (aOR = 1.80, 95% CI 1.40-2.30). Paternal pregravid BMI was not independently associated with LGA or SGA.

Conclusion: Paternal BMI prior to conception is associated with infant birthweight but only modestly so, in contrast to the dominant impact of maternal weight.

Citing Articles

Maternal Birth Weight From Predicts LGA Neonates Better Than Maternal Parameters in Pregnancy.

Dateoka K, Mabuchi S, Nagamine Y, Arai T, Hashimoto M J Pregnancy. 2025; 2025:4500495.

PMID: 39995526 PMC: 11847610. DOI: 10.1155/jp/4500495.

Exploring the Father's Role in Determining Neonatal Birth Weight: A Narrative Review.

Libretti A, Savasta F, Nicosia A, Corsini C, De Pedrini A, Leo L Medicina (Kaunas). 2024; 60(10).

PMID: 39459447 PMC: 11509116. DOI: 10.3390/medicina60101661.

Multifaceted paternal exposures before conception and their epigenetic impact on offspring.

Wu X, Zhang W, Chen H, Weng J J Assist Reprod Genet. 2024; 41(11):2931-2951.

PMID: 39230664 PMC: 11621294. DOI: 10.1007/s10815-024-03243-1.

Effect of Paternal Body Mass Index on Fertilization and Neonatal Outcomes among Oligozoospermia and Asthenospermia Patients.

Zhang X, Wu S, Qi X, Gao S, Qi J, Zhang S World J Mens Health. 2023; 42(1):216-228.

PMID: 37382283 PMC: 10782126. DOI: 10.5534/wjmh.220286.

Paternal preconception modifiable risk factors for adverse pregnancy and offspring outcomes: a review of contemporary evidence from observational studies.

Carter T, Schoenaker D, Adams J, Steel A BMC Public Health. 2023; 23(1):509.

PMID: 36927694 PMC: 10022288. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-023-15335-1.

References

. Macrosomia: ACOG Practice Bulletin, Number 216. Obstet Gynecol. 2019; 135(1):e18-e35. DOI: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000003606. View

Bellavia A, Mitro S, Hauser R, James-Todd T . Paternal bias: The impact of not accounting for paternal confounders in reproductive epidemiological studies. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2019; 222(1):87-88. PMC: 7657710. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2019.08.005. View

Soubry A . POHaD: why we should study future fathers. Environ Epigenet. 2018; 4(2):dvy007. PMC: 5920283. DOI: 10.1093/eep/dvy007. View

Soubry A, Schildkraut J, Murtha A, Wang F, Huang Z, Bernal A . Paternal obesity is associated with IGF2 hypomethylation in newborns: results from a Newborn Epigenetics Study (NEST) cohort. BMC Med. 2013; 11:29. PMC: 3584733. DOI: 10.1186/1741-7015-11-29. View

Knight B, Shields B, Hill A, Powell R, Wright D, Hattersley A . The impact of maternal glycemia and obesity on early postnatal growth in a nondiabetic Caucasian population. Diabetes Care. 2007; 30(4):777-83. DOI: 10.2337/dc06-1849. View

Soubry A, Guo L, Huang Z, Hoyo C, Romanus S, Price T . Obesity-related DNA methylation at imprinted genes in human sperm: Results from the TIEGER study. Clin Epigenetics. 2016; 8:51. PMC: 4859994. DOI: 10.1186/s13148-016-0217-2. View

Voerman E, Santos S, Inskip H, Amiano P, Barros H, Charles M . Association of Gestational Weight Gain With Adverse Maternal and Infant Outcomes. JAMA. 2019; 321(17):1702-1715. PMC: 6506886. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2019.3820. View

Retnakaran R, Wen S, Tan H, Zhou S, Ye C, Shen M . Association of Timing of Weight Gain in Pregnancy With Infant Birth Weight. JAMA Pediatr. 2017; 172(2):136-142. PMC: 5796742. DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.4016. View

Dai L, Deng C, Li Y, Zhu J, Mu Y, Deng Y . Birth weight reference percentiles for Chinese. PLoS One. 2014; 9(8):e104779. PMC: 4134219. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104779. View

10.

Retnakaran R, Wen S, Tan H, Zhou S, Ye C, Shen M . Maternal pre-gravid cardiometabolic health and infant birthweight: A prospective pre-conception cohort study. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2017; 27(8):723-730. DOI: 10.1016/j.numecd.2017.05.005. View

11.

Regnault N, Botton J, Forhan A, Hankard R, Thiebaugeorges O, Hillier T . Determinants of early ponderal and statural growth in full-term infants in the EDEN mother-child cohort study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010; 92(3):594-602. DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.2010.29292. View

12.

Sharp G, Lawlor D . Paternal impact on the life course development of obesity and type 2 diabetes in the offspring. Diabetologia. 2019; 62(10):1802-1810. PMC: 6731203. DOI: 10.1007/s00125-019-4919-9. View

13.

McDermott M, Brubaker L . Prepregnancy Body Mass Index, Weight Gain During Pregnancy, and Health Outcomes. JAMA. 2019; 321(17):1715. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2019.3821. View

14.

Ornellas F, Carapeto P, Mandarim-de-Lacerda C, Aguila M . Obese fathers lead to an altered metabolism and obesity in their children in adulthood: review of experimental and human studies. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2017; 93(6):551-559. DOI: 10.1016/j.jped.2017.02.004. View

15.

Wei Y, Yang C, Wei Y, Zhao Z, Hou Y, Schatten H . Paternally induced transgenerational inheritance of susceptibility to diabetes in mammals. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014; 111(5):1873-8. PMC: 3918818. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1321195111. View

16.

Zylke J, DeAngelis C . Health promotion and disease prevention in children: it's never too early. JAMA. 2009; 301(21):2270-1. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2009.804. View

17.

Durmus B, Arends L, Ay L, Hokken-Koelega A, Raat H, Hofman A . Parental anthropometrics, early growth and the risk of overweight in pre-school children: the Generation R Study. Pediatr Obes. 2012; 8(5):339-50. DOI: 10.1111/j.2047-6310.2012.00114.x. View

18.

Gluckman P, Hanson M, Cooper C, Thornburg K . Effect of in utero and early-life conditions on adult health and disease. N Engl J Med. 2008; 359(1):61-73. PMC: 3923653. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra0708473. View

19.

Ng S, Lin R, Laybutt D, Barres R, Owens J, Morris M . Chronic high-fat diet in fathers programs β-cell dysfunction in female rat offspring. Nature. 2010; 467(7318):963-6. DOI: 10.1038/nature09491. View

20.

Portha B, Grandjean V, Movassat J . Mother or Father: Who Is in the Front Line? Mechanisms Underlying the Non-Genomic Transmission of Obesity/Diabetes via the Maternal or the Paternal Line. Nutrients. 2019; 11(2). PMC: 6413176. DOI: 10.3390/nu11020233. View