TOPLINE:Children of mothers who had obesity or eating disorders before or during pregnancy may face higher risks for neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.
METHODOLOGY:Researchers conducted a population-based cohort study to investigate the association of maternal eating disorders and high prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) with psychiatric disorder and neurodevelopmental diagnoses in offspring.They used Finnish national registers to assess all live births from 2004 through 2014, with follow-up until 2021.Data of 392,098 mothers (mean age, 30.15 years) and 649,956 offspring (48.86% girls) were included.Maternal eating disorders and prepregnancy BMI were the main exposures, with 1.60% of mothers having a history of eating disorders; 5.89% were underweight and 53.13% had obesity.Diagnoses of children were identified and grouped by ICD-10 codes of mental, behavioral, and neurodevelopmental disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and conduct disorders, among several others.TAKEAWAY:From birth until 7-17 years of age, 16.43% of offspring were diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorder.Maternal eating disorders were associated with psychiatric disorders in the offspring, with the largest effect sizes observed for sleep disorders (hazard ratio [HR], 2.36) and social functioning and tic disorders (HR, 2.18; P
Source : Medscape