Geographical variation in relationships between parental body size and offspring phenotype at birth

作者：Sam D. Leary, Caroline H. D. Fall, Clive Osmond, Hermione J. Lovel, Doris M. Campbell, Johan Gunnar Eriksson, Terrence Forrester, Keith M. Godfrey, Jacqui Hill, Jie Mi, Catherine Law, Rachel Newby, Sian M. Robinson, Chittaranjan Sakerlal Yajnik · 发表于：Acta Obstetricia Et Gynecologica Scandinavica · 年份：2006 · DOI：10.1080/00016340600697306 · 被引用次数：86 · 研究领域：Birth, Development, and Health、Gestational Diabetes Research and Management、Pregnancy and preeclampsia studies

BACKGROUND: Size and body proportions at birth are partly determined by maternal body composition, but most studies of mother-baby relationships have only considered the effects of maternal height and weight on offspring birth weight, and few have examined the size of effects. Paternal size and body composition also play a role, primarily through the fetal genome, although few studies have investigated relationships with neonatal phenotype. METHODS: Data from the UK, Finland, India, Sri Lanka, China, DR Congo, Nigeria and Jamaica were used to investigate the effects of maternal measures (derived at 30 weeks' gestation, n=16,418), and also paternal size (n=3,733) on neonatal phenotype, for singleton, live-born, term births. RESULTS: After accounting for variation in maternal size and shape across populations, differences in neonatal phenotype were markedly reduced. Mother-baby relationships were similar across populations, although some were stronger in developing countries. Maternal height was generally the strongest predictor of neonatal length, maternal head circumference of neonatal head and maternal skinfold thickness of neonatal skinfolds. Relationships with maternal arm muscle area were generally weak. Effects of paternal height and body mass index were weaker than the equivalent maternal measurements in most studies. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in maternal body composition account for a large part of the geographical variation in neonatal phenotype. The size of the effect...