Parental Preconception BMI Trajectories from Childhood to Adolescence and Asthma in the Future Offspring

Background: Recent evidence suggests that parental exposures before conception can increase the risk of asthma in offspring.

Objective: We investigated the association between parents' preconception body mass index (BMI) trajectories from childhood to adolescence and subsequent risk of asthma in their offspring.

Methods: Using group-based trajectory modeling from the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study, we identified BMI trajectories for index participants (parents) when aged 4 years to 15 years. Multinomial regression models adjusted for potential confounders were utilized to estimate the association between these early-life parents' BMI trajectories and asthma phenotypes in their subsequent offspring.

Results: The main analysis included 1822 parents and 4208 offspring. Four BMI trajectories from age 4 years to 15 years were identified as the best-fitting model: low (8.8%), normal (44.1%), above normal (40.2%), and high (7.0%). Associations were observed between father's high BMI trajectory and risk of asthma in offspring before the age of 10 years (relative risk ratio [RRR] =1.70 [95% CI = 0.98-2.93]) and also asthma ever (RRR = 1.72 [95% CI = 1.00-2.97]), especially allergic asthma ever (RRR = 2.05 [95% CI = 1.12-3.72]). These associations were not mediated by offspring birth weight. No associations were observed for maternal BMI trajectories and offspring asthma phenotypes.

Conclusion: This cohort study over 6 decades of life and across 2 generations suggests that the high BMI trajectory in fathers, well before conception, increased the risk of asthma in their offspring.